144 candidates fight for 14 LS seats in 5th phase polls in UP
Altogether 144 candidates are in the fray for 14 Lok Sabha seats in the fifth phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh where voting will be held on May 20.
The Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday “strongly” condemned the passing of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) 2019, which seeks to give Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, saying that it “violates all norms of international human rights law”.
“We strongly condemn Indian Lok Sabha citizenship legislation which violates all norms of international human rights law and bilateral agreements with Pakistan,” Khan said in a tweet.
He further said that the CAB “is part of the RSS ‘Hindu Rashtra’ design of expansionism propagated by the fascist Modi government.”
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The Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there, a little past midnight on Tuesday after a heated debate that lasted over seven hours.
The Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha with 311 members favouring it and 80 voting against it, will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha for its nod.
According to the proposed legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
However, CAB has been opposed by the Congress, Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties, who have termed it as “anti-minority” and “unconstitutional”.
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