Hyderabad: Former minister and senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir today demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao convene a special session of Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution rejecting Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed National Register of Citizenship (NRC).
Addressing a meeting convened by Telangana & Andhra Pradesh JAC on CAA & NRC here, Shabbir Ali urged the organizations to pressurize the Chief Minister to officially announce that he would not implement both the CAA and NRC in the State. Pointing out that Chief Ministers of Congress and Left parties have already made similar announcements, Shabbir said although the TRS has been supporting the BJP government at the Centre since 2014, it voted against the CAA in Parliament. Therefore, the Chief Minister should convene a special session and announce rejection of CAA and NRC, he added.
Shabbir Ali accused the BJP Government at the Centre of creating a communal divide in the name of granting citizenship to six minority groups from three neighboring countries. He said the BJP has tried to kill the very spirit of the Constitution by linking citizenship with religion. He also pointed out that the CAA was inspired by the ideology of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who wrote a book ‘Hindutva’ in 1917 and published it in 1923. However, he said, the idea was rejected by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Moulana Azad, and other Congress leaders and Dr B. R. Ambedkar penned secular Constitution. He alleged that the BJP was now trying to change the Statute, clause-by-clause.
The Congress leader also condemned the police “brutality” on students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University during anti-CAA protests. He said lakhs of students from 23 premier universities came out in support of JMI and AMU students to condemn police atrocities. He said BJP’s ideology of giving citizenship on the basis of religion has no takers and anti-CAA protests have erupted across the country. He said the Congress, which has been fighting against the unconstitutional Act at the national level, would support all peaceful protests against the CAA and NRC.
