New Delhi, Apr 22: Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday alleged that the Congress is “hell-bent on harming” Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Sikh and Parsi communities to appease its vote bank, a day after its leader P Chidambaram said his party will repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act if voted to power.
To change laws, one needs to be in government and it's not possible for the Congress to become even the main opposition party, Shah said.
In a statement, the minister said, “Blinded by the politics of appeasement, Congress has lost its nerve upon seeing its crushing defeat in the first phase. It is hell-bent on harming Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Sikh, and Parsi communities to appease its vote bank.”
He asserted that it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantee that everyone from persecuted minority communities who have come to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh will receive citizenship through the CAA, and no one can stop it.
The Congress has a problem with Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, and Parsis receiving citizenship, he alleged, adding the opposition party is troubled at justice being served within three years through the law.
Voters will teach the Congress a bigger lesson in this Lok Sabha elections than the 2019 and 2014 polls, the BJP leader said.
“To change laws, one needs to be in government, and it's not possible for the Congress to become even the main opposition party,” he said.
A party needs to win at least 10 per cent of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats to become eligible to be recognised as the main opposition party, a threshold the Congress could not cross in the last two elections.
Shah claimed that India has freed itself from the clutches of the Congress, which suppressed its fundamental culture and thoughts.
“Modi Ji has changed the criminal laws of the British era, providing India with the world's most modern justice system, while the Congress talks about changing it,” he said in an apparent reference to the new criminal laws to replace to colonial era statutes.
Senior Congress leader Chidambaram on Sunday said the CAA will be repealed in the first session of Parliament if the INDIA bloc forms the government at the Centre.
