Hitting out at opposition for spreading lies about Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that people should not have any misconception about the amended citizenship law because Indian culture believes in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) and does not segregate people on the basis of caste, creed and colour.
Singh was in his parliamentary constituency Lucknow for a day on Sunday to dispel misgivings about the CAA and the NRC as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign to clear doubts about them.
“The people are being mis-led by the opposition parties for their political gains. The BJP has decided to give a message to the people that they should not have any misconception about the CAA. The Indian culture teaches us about Sarvdharma Sambhav and a Hindustani cannot discriminate on lines of caste and religion,” he said.
Singh visited the house of retired judge Khemkaran in Sarojini Nagar where the residents were given the booklet ‘Nagarikta (Sanshodhan) Adhiniyam, 2019: ek parichay’, highlighting the main points of the CAA. The defence minister asked people and party workers to go through the booklet.
“This Act does not deal with taking citizenship of any person. Instead it will give citizenship to the minority who are being persecuted in neighbouring countries and are staying in India since 2014. The opposition has spread lies that this Act will be used to take away citizenship of members of a particular community,” Singh said.
He said that there were many occasions when the opposition leaders demanded citizenship rights for the minority being persecuted in neighbouring countries but now they were spreading lies.
“The message of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam had gone from India to the entire world. Our party believes in this ethos and cannot violate the Indian cultural values,” he said.
Singh clarified that the NRC was being implemented in Assam and the exercise was carried out on the directives of the Supreme Court.
“We are just following the directives of the Supreme Court. There is no government order in this regard. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clarified that the government has so far no plans to implement NRC across India,” Singh said.
Rajnath Singh’s visit to Lucknow comes days after widespread violence during protests against the amended citizenship law left 19 persons dead in UP.
Singh also met doctors at Sun Eye Hospital. He told people there that they should not get swayed by the lies being spread by some TV channels.
During this campaign, state minister Swati Singh, Mayor Samyukta Bhatia and leaders of BJP city unit accompanied Rajnath Singh.