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.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (File Photo: IANS)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized the BJP government over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, saying it was an “attack on the Indian Constitution.”
Gandhi took to Twitter and said, “The CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation.”
The #CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation.
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— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 10, 2019
Earlier in the day, party leader P Chidambaram too had had strong words for the ruling BJP after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was cleared in the Lok Sabha at 12.02 am on Tuesday.
Chidambaram accused the BJP of “trampling over the wishes of the State and the People” after winning the brute majority in the Lower House. Chidambaram said defeats such as the one over the CAB were “the price we pay for giving a party a brute majority.”
“That is the price we pay for giving a party a brute majority that it uses to trample over the wishes of the States and the People,” the former Home and Finance Minister said.
The Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 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 Monday after a heated debate that lasted over seven hours.
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.
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