Three-time Chief of India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh and BJP’s national Vice President Shivraj Singh Chouhan asserted on Monday that Hindus who faced religious persecution in Pakistan have been given a “new lease of life” by the federal government through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was like "God" for the immigrants.
“Modi has come as God for immigrants whose lives were not safe, who lived in an environment of instability and who used to say that they will die but will not return to Pakistan. They have got a new lease of life,” said Chouhan at a news conference in the western city of Jaipur.
Chouhan accused India’s principal opposition party, the Indian National Congress, of spreading confusion among people over the Act. “Sonia Gandhi should have spoken during the debate in Parliament before the passage of the bill, instead of putting out a televised video message about the issue,” Chouhan said.
Congress party had been opposed to the Act ever since its passage in parliament. Congress President Sonia Gandhi even led an opposition delegation to President Ram Nath Kovind last week demanding thewithdrawal of the Act. In a televised address last week, Gandhi accused BJP of pursuing a divisive agenda and called the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) discriminatory.
India enacted the Citizenship Amendment Bill on December 11. It grants citizenship to illegal immigrants from six religious minorities – Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs (but excludes Muslims), from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, if they arrived in India prior to 2015.
