AMN / JAIPUR
Senior BJP leader and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has accused the Congress of doing appeasement politics and creating confusion among people over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Ms Sitharaman was addressing a press conference in Jaipur today. She said, the Opposition is creating confusion and misleading people over the issue of CAA. Ms Sitharaman said, Congress President Sonia Gandhi released a video statement but she did not condemn the violence. She accused Congress of standing with those who committed violence.
Ms Sitaraman said, it is not the first time a provision was made to give citizenship to refugees. She said, even before, previous governments have given citizenship to refugees when needed.
The Minister said, the illusion is being spread that citizenship will not be granted to Muslims. She said, in the last six years, over two thousand refugees from Pakistan got Indian citizenship and most of them were Muslims. In the same period, 900 people from Afghanistan and 200 from Bangladesh also got citizenship and most of them are Muslims. Ms Sitharaman said that there is no exclusion and even today, they can acquire citizenship under the Citizenship Act.
Earlier in the day, the Minister participated in a door-to-door awareness campaign on the Citizenship Amendment Act.