Citizenship (Amendment) Bill as “Significant” as Abrogation of Article 370: Rajnath Singh

New Delhi, December 3, 2019:

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is as significant as the abrogation of Article 370 during the parliamentary meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Rajnath Singh has urged the BJP MPs to be present in the Parliament when Union Home Minister Amit Shah will table the Citizenship Bill.

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The defence minister rejected the opposition's criticism of the Citizenship Bill and said BJP has always worked to unite the country and its people. The oppositions criticized that the bill will grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution.

Reportedly, Singh also made a reference to the allegation that the bill was against secularism as its beneficiaries excluded Muslims and said the three neighbouring countries were essentially Islamic nations. So it is non-Muslims, who are at the receiving end of religious persecution there.

The defence minister also mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dissatisfaction over lack of adequate presence of BJP MPs in the Parliament in the past.

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Singh also cautioned the MPs against using unparliamentary words during their intervention on the floor of the house. He said that the MPs should be aggressive in countering the opposition but not go to the extent of what the Congress.

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