GUWAHATI, Dec 6 - The ruling BJP on Friday accused the Congress, the AIUDF and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) of spreading falsehood regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) with an attempt to incite various organisations and the masses on the issue to create unrest in Assam.
Addressing the media here, BJP Minority Morcha State unit president Muktar Hussain Khan said the Central government has held detailed deliberations with various political parties, non-political organisations and other stakeholders on the issue of the CAB. �The Congress is inciting the anti-CAB agitation. They want to create unrest in the state,� said the BJP leader.
He also accused the AIUDF and the Akhil Gogoi-led KMSS of trying to fan chaos.
�The AIUDF has jumped into the fray only for the sake of votes. The AIUDF is spreading the seeds of communalism... �Akhil Gogoi-AIUDF bhai bhai�... The people of Assam know very well that wherever Badar bhai is present, Akhil bhai will also be present. Both are trying to fan unrest in Assam,� Khan said, referring to AIUDF founder Maulana Badruddin Ajmal.
He said the Citizenship Act, 1955, has been already amended many times and claimed that even Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had supported giving refuge to persecuted minorities from then undivided Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Khan said the CAB only seeks to amend the time-frame and eligibility criteria for granting citizenship to such persecuted non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
He said the BJP had never shied away from its promise to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities of these three neighbouring countries. �We contested and won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2016 Assam Assembly polls, during the course of which we had openly stated our position on the matter before the public,� said the BJP leader.
He claimed that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have now accepted that abrogation of Article 370 was a good decision by the government. �Many people had said many things about abrogation of Article 370. Now the people of Kashmir have accepted it. Maybe it will take some time for the people here to understand the facts about the CAB. Assamese people are emotional. But very soon they will realise that the CAB is a good thing,� Khan said.
