The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 was put up in the Rajya Sabha today by Home Minister Amit Shah. Though the NDA government is confident of the Bill sailing through smoothly owing to the strength of numbers, the Opposition has decided to oppose it tooth and nail. The current strength of the House is 240 and the government will need more than half the votes to win this one that means 121. Currently, the NDA government can reach 127 against 113 of the Opposition.
- Citizenship Bill to Benefit 1.5 Cr People: RSS sources | The Citizenship Amendment Bill will benefit more than 1.5 crore people in the country, out of which more than 50 per cent are SCs and STs, RSS sources said, asserting that the Sangh will launch a nationwide campaign in favour of the proposed legislation. Underlining that the bill will have a limited impact in Assam, a senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary said only six lakh people will benefit from this, whereas in West Bengal more than 72 lakh will benefit. Those persecuted Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists who have been staying in the country for a decade will benefit, he said asserting, that they are “natural citizens” of the country.
- Uproar in Rajya Sabha as Amit Shah quotes Mamata Banerjee, who had raised the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators in West Bengal in Lok Sabha in 2005.
- During UPA govt, the then Rajasthan govt wrote to then home minister P Chidambaram stating outstanding issue of large number of Pakistan refugees from Hindu and Sikh communities. At least 13000 people from two religions only were benefited. Whereas, we have included refugees from 6 religions,” Shah says.
- Law made in past to address problems of Tamils coming from Sri Lanka. Now, law is being made to address the problems of those coming from three other nations,” says Amit Shah.
- Shah Explains Exclusion of Muslim Migrants | Answering the question of exclusion of Muslim illegal migrants, the home minister says, “We are including the minorities from the three neihbours — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh — which are all Islamic nations, and there are very less chances of persecution of Muslims in these countries. Therefore, the bill proposes to give citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Parsis, Jains,
