Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday (January 13) took a dig at Congress-led Opposition's resolution on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and taunted the Congress by saying that the absence of major opposition parties like the Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sends a clear message that the Congress lacks the support of whole opposition.
"The Opposition's resolution is not in national or security interest, neither in the interest of persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries," the minister said at a press conference. It is to be noted that Congress and other opposition parties on Monday passed a resolution demanding the repealing of CAA and 'immediate stoppage of the NRC/NPR'.
In a scathing attack on the Congress and other opposition parties, Prasad said Pakistan must have been very happy by their resolution. "The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a chance to expose barbaric treatment of minorities in Pakistan," he added. Prasad asserted that the Opposition was targeting PM Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre over CAA without any concrete logic.
Earlier on Monday, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi had slammed PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah accusing them of misleading people on the CAA and the NRC.
Addressing a meeting of opposition leaders at Delhi, Sonia Gandhi said, "The government has let loose a reign of oppression, it is spreading hatred and trying to divide people along sectarian lines."
"Nation watched in horror at BJP-orchestrated assault on JNU after what happened in Jamia, BHU, Allahabad university and AMU: Sonia Gandhi," she added. The opposition leaders held a meeting in Parliament Annexe to hold discussions over the current political situation in the country following widespread protests against the new legislation and tension in campuses.
The meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi was attended by leaders of opposition parties like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Lok Janshakti Party (LJD) chief Sharad Yadav, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, besides Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was also present.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who is opposed to CAA and NRC, had stated earlier that TMC leaders will not attend the meeting over the "violence" by Congress and Left parties during a strike last week.
BSP chief Mayawati decided to attend the meeting citing "betrayal" by the Congress in Rajasthan as the grand old party has poached BSP MLAs in the state. "As is known, despite BSP supporting Congress government in Rajasthan from outside, they broke our MLAs for a second time and inducted them in their own party, which is a complete betrayal," she tweeted.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh said that no one from his party attended the meeting as they were not informed about it."We have no information about any such meeting. So makes no sense to attend a meeting we have no information about it," Singh told ANI.
