Speaking at a rally in Vijaypur, Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for the passage of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to immigrants belonging to six minority religions —Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
According to ANI, Prime Minister Modi said that people belonging to ‘Bharat’ who are residing in neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have been inflicted with severe torture and added that nobody in the past gave attention to address the plight of these people who are now seeking India’s refuge.
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“Our government has brought a proposal to amend the citizenship law. These are part of the resolution by which we will stand with all the people who were ever part of India and have separated us from the circumstances of 1947,” said PM Modi.
On Saturday too, Prime Minister Modi addressing at a rally in West Bengal had also spoken in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 and had urged West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee to come forward and support the bill, in order to safeguard interests of persecuted minorities.
The PM had stated that the persecuted minorities are those people whose lives have been torn due to India’s partition and subsequent violence they faced in the neighbouring countries. He added that they should get a chance to live respectfully as citizens of India.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on 8th January, seeks an amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955, to provide citizenship to the persecuted minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains, and Christians) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The bill is expected to be tabled in Rajya Sabha during the Budget session.