Despite protests, Citizenship Amendment Act will not be withdrawn: Amit Shah

Amid the countrywide demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment ACT (CAA), Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that the law will not be scrapped irrespective of the protests.

While addressing a rally, Shah said, "I declare here in Lucknow, that whoever wants to protest against CAA is free to do so but this law will not be rolled back."

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has today granted an opportunity to the persecuted minorities from the neighbouring countries to start a new life," Shah also said, adding that it has "no provision for taking anyone's citizenship away"
  
He further attacked opposition parties and said, "Canards being spread against CAA by Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaaj Party and Trinamool Congress."

''I challenge Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Bannerjee and Mayawati for a discussion on CAA with me in public forum,'' Shah also said

"Congress has become blind due to vote bank politics," he said. He also blamed the Congress for Partition.

Addressing a rally in support of the CAA, Shah also declared that construction of a Ram temple "touching the skies" in Ayodhya and will begin within three months.

Shah drew a parallel between the opposition and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and said that they speak the same language.

"In effect, the opposition speaks the same language as Imran Khan. They ask for proof of surgical and airstrikes, they oppose abrogation of Art 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and they oppose the CAA," he said.

The Citizenship Amendment bill sailed through both houses of Parliament earlier this month and became a law after the getting assent of President Ram Nath Kovind. Since the enactment of the Act, anti-CAA protests have erupted in parts of the country during which several clashes between police and protesters have taken place.

The bill, now an Act, seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

The Act came into effect on January 10 despite the protests which are still underway in many parts of the country.