By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Union Home Minister Amit Shah was on Friday once again came down heavily on Congress saying its leaders in the 50s talked at 27 public places demanding citizenship for minority Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims fleeing to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution.
Shah, flanked by Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Pratap Sarangi, National General secretary and Odisha in-charge Arun Singh, National VP-Spokesperson Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, BJP State chief Samir Mohanty, Party MPs Basant Panda, Suresh Pujari, Aparajita Sarangi, Sangeeta Singh Deo, senior leaders Golak Mohapatra, Prithwiraj Harichandan, Sajjan Sharma and others praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing important issues relating to “national security and sensibilities”, including abrogation of provisions of Article 370, CAA and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
“Shouldn’t they get Indian citizenship? Shouldn’t their human rights be protected?” Shah asked the audience which responded with a resounding ‘YES’.Shah said “Because of Article 370 Jammu and Kashmir appeared alienated from ‘Bharat’. With its abrogation, Kashmir is now the crown of Mother India,” he said.Union Home Minister also blamed the Congress of stalling resolution of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in the Supreme Court for decades.
“After the BJP returned to power for a second term with 303 seats, the path was paved for building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya that would touch the sky,” Shah said.
Shah thanked the people of Odisha for their support to the BJP which replaced Congress as the main opposition party in the state in the Assembly elections.Union Minister said between 2014-19, when the BJP led NDA Government was in power, the allocation went up to a staggering 2.11 lakh crore under the 14th Finance Commission, he said.”The Modi Government opened the door to development of not only Odisha but the entire Eastern Region,” BJP Strong Man said.
“I have said this before and repeating it now that nobody, no Indian Muslim will lose their citizenship because of the CAA. This law is for granting citizenship to religious minorities that have been persecuted in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It’s not intended to take away anyone’scitizenship”.
He said Citizenship (Amendment) Act a “historic step”, and alleged that the Congress, Communists, SP, BSP and TMC were spreading lies about it.Shah urged people not to be misled over the opposition’s attempts at creating ‘bhranti’ (confusion) about the new law.
Union Minister said the Modi Government had only fulfilled the dreams of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and others who favoured Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities from the three countries.
