NEW DELHI, Dec 3 - Those opposed to the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill has not been able to convince the Centre about their ground of hostility, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday. The Defence Minister, who was addressing the BJP Parliamentary Board, told party MPs that the Centre is committed to table the CAB in Parliament during this Session.
Singh, who had held the post of Union Home Minister during NDA-I, said that those who are opposing the Bill have not been able to clearly explain why there is a conflict with the Bill. �They have not been able to convince us why they are opposed to the Bill,� sources quoted Singh as having said.
The Defence Minister, who said that he had the opportunity to study the matter in depth, further clarified that people often ask why the Bill proposes citizenship to Hindus alone. The Hindus are religiously minorities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and are persecuted there, while the Muslims in those three countries are in majority there and do not face religious persecution, he explained.
Singh had moved the CAB 2016 during NDA-I, which lapsed as the Centre did not press for its passage in Rajya Sabha.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said in a Lok Sabha reply that there are six detention centres in Assam. Women and men detenues are kept in separate rooms. They are living with dignity and are not deprived of any basic facility. There is no report of any rape incident of women detainees in detention centres. The detainees are allowed to meet their family members and legal advisors and there is no restriction as regards this, Reddy said.
