Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday (January 21) addressed a pro-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rally in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow and dared the Congress, Samajwadi Party, TMC and other opposition parties to prove that the new legislation strips Indians of citizenship.
Addressing the rally, Shah challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to hold an open debate with him on the CAA.
“The anti-CAA parties are spreading propaganda and spreading illusions that’s why the BJP is running the Jan Jagran Abhiyan, which is a public awareness campaign against those who break the country,” he said.
“I have introduced this bill in the Lok Sabha. I want to tell the opposition that you should discuss this bill publicly. If it can take citizenship of any person, then prove it and show it,” added Shah.
Shah also declared that the opposition parties can protest as much as they want against the CAA but the BJP-led government at the Centre will not scrap the new law. "Let me say this here and now, this law will not be withdrawn, no matter who protests... We are not scared of opposition, we were born in it," he asserted.
The Union Home Minister also attacked the opposition parties for misleading the Muslims of the country, saying that some parties are trying to instigate Muslims in the name of CAA.
On January 16, while addressing a pro-CAA rally at Bihar's Vaishali, Shah had accused the opposition parties of inciting violence during anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh and some other parts of the country.
The CAA, which grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014, has triggered widespread protests across the country.
