By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: BJP National Vice-President and Spokesperson Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda was on Wednesday claimed that Congress had in 2003 supported a move on NRC and CAA.
“No explanation is necessary; just have a quick glance at this parliamentary committee report from 2003, especially the names & highlighted portions,” Panda twitted with a report of 2003.
Congress leaders like Pranab Mukharjee, Kapil Sibal, Hansraj Bharadwaj, BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Left leader A Bijay Raghaban were among those present in the meeting and supported that citizenship should be granted to minority refugees from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The CAA was the “only scheme” that lived up to Mahatma Gandhi’s assurance to minorities in Pakistan in 1947 that they will always have shelter in their “original homeland,” if given no proper security there, Panda, a 4th times former MP from Odisha said.
The amended Citizenship Act providing Indian nationality to persecuted minorities from Pakistan among others was an “unfinished business” of the country’s independence and partition, BJP leader Panda said.
“This is just plain lie. This has to be pointed out. This is the frustration of the opposition of not being able to take on the BJP, not able to match Modi ji and Amit shah’s leadership,” he said.
This was the opposition’s “frustrated reaction after seven or eight months of lot of big decisions in which they have played no part,” Panda added.
