NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 9
Amid uproar by the Opposition, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The Bill was introduced after a division of votes for which 293 MPs voted in favour and 82 voted against.
Introducing the Bill in Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah said the Congress “divided” the country on the basis of religion that is why it was necessary to bring the Bill.
Shah said the proposed legislation is being brought on the basis of reasonable classifications provided under the Constitution and it does not violate any of its provisions.
The Bill, he said, seeks to give Indian nationality to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who are facing religious persecution there.
The Home Minister said laws were framed to give citizenship to people on several occasions in the past, including in 1971 after the creation of Bangladesh and attacks on Indians in Uganda, by using the provision of reasonable classifications.
“This bill is not even .001 per cent against minorities. It is against infiltrators,” he said.
Opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Lok Sabha on Monday, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the Bill is being brought to enable a new partition of the country on the line of religion. Owaisi also tore apart a copy of the Bill, which was condemned by the Speaker and was removed from the records of the House.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said his party supports the bill as it will hugely benefit Sikhs facing persecution in Pakistan. He also urged the government to include Ahmediyas and Hazaras in the ambit of the bill.
Sena said that besides Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, refugees from Sri Lanka should also be allowed to get Indian citizenship.
Earlier, opposition leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Saugata Roy, N.K. Premchandran, Gaurav Gogoi, Shashi Tharoor, Asaduddin Owaisi opposed the introduction of the Bill, saying it was violative of various provisions of the Constitution, including move to grant citizenship on the basis on religion.
Home Minister Amit Shah had said in Lok Sabha on December 9 that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 is not against minorities but against infiltrators.
