Divisive driver driving CAB

New Delhi : Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Monday hit out at the government over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, saying it is a "cab" ride with a divisive driver.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there.

The Congress has said it will oppose "tooth and nail" the Bill in Parliament as it is against the country's Constitution and its secular ethos.

"CAB is a cab ride with a divisive driver to: destabilise, destroy our polity values both societal and constitutional with an eye only on political dividends. Hath milao Desh bachao!" Sibal said in a tweet.

Protests in country

Protests were held in the Parliament complex and elsewhere in the city and the country against the Citizenship Amendment Bill which was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Home Minister Amit Shah.

While Indian Union Muslim League MPs protested in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament premises, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) demonstrated at Jantar Mantar and held up placards saying that the bill was against the idea of India. "We reject this bill.

It is against the Constitution and against Hindu-Muslim unity," Badruddin Ajmal, AIUDF MP from Dhubri, Assam, told reporters when asked about the CAB. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to give Indian nationality to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan facing religious persecution there, was introduced in the Lower House of Parliament by Shah on Monday.

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 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

Protests were also held in different parts of the country over the introduction of the bill. In Assam, the bill is facing huge protests as the people say that it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion.

Protests were held in all major cities of Assam, with shops being closed in Guwahati following a shutdown call by various organisations opposing the bill. In Agartala and West Bengal also protests broke out against the bill.

AAP to oppose

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, the party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said as he claimed that the proposed law is BJP's attempt to end democracy in India.

Expressing the AAP's opposition to the bill, Singh claimed that the legislation is BJP's attempt to end democracy in India. "CAB is being opposed from Assam to Tamil Nadu. AAP will oppose it," he said. AAP has four MPs in Parliament - three in Rajya Sabha and one in Lok Sabha.

'Stop daydreaming'

Apprehensions over a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) proposed by the Union government is one of the key reasons attributed by analysts to the BJP's loss to Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in last month's bypolls for three assembly seats.

TMC leader Colonel Diptanshu Chaudhary (retired) said, "If the BJP is thinking that CAB is going to help it win the 2021 Assembly polls, then I would suggest its leaders stop daydreaming.

They did the same thing in Assam and we all know what happened after that. They removed the names of nearly 13 lakh Hindus (out of nearly 19 lakh left out in the NRC). "

"This has prompted the Assam BJP to demand a fresh NRC in the state. I think they are doing divisive politics in India through the NRC and the CAB. Our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already said we are ready to support the CAB, but it should not be based on religion."

Dr Mohit Kumar Ray, chief of the BJP's refugee cell, said, "This Bill will be the future of Bengal. Nearly 1.5 crore Muslims illegally entered India from Bangladesh and 1 crore entered as victims of Partition.

This Bill is very important to identify these 1.5 crore Muslims who infiltrated India. The bill is not about the BJP. It is about the dignity of the Bengalis who came here after Partition."

Every day, 748 people slip into India from Bangladesh and about 85% of them settle in Bengal, Ray said. "This is alarming and no one is saying anything about it.

We feel that this Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will certainly give long-pending rights to the refugees and empower our government to take stern action against the illegal immigrants," he added.