Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Wednesday accused the Congress and other opposition parties of spreading "falsehood" over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and "misleading" the country.
Addressing a public awareness meet on the CAA in the Budhapara area here, the BJP leader said the new law is meant to grant citizenship and not to snatch it.
He said construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya will start soon after a trust for the purpose is constituted by the Centre before February 9 as announced earlier.
Most part of Maurya's speech was focused on attacking the opposition parties over the contentious citizenship law, whose passage in Parliament last month triggered nationwide protests, some of which turned violent, including in Uttar Pradesh.
...an atmosphere is being created through lies in such a way to give impression that the CAA has been enacted to snatch away citizenship of people. The Congress is spreading lies and misleading the people, Maurya claimed.
Why the Congress and its gang have been opposing the new law?..it is because they are not able to accept the bold decisions taken by the Modi government whether it is scrapping the special status of Jammu and Kashmir or enactment of the new law against the practice of triple talaq," he said.
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"They are spreading lies that Muslims will be evicted from the country though the law (CAA) has no such provision. The new law is meant to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from three Muslim-majority countries and not to take away anyones citizenship," he asserted.
Maurya singled out the Congress for criticism over the CAA, which seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jain, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
The Congress has spoken lies and spread falsehood. It misled the country that resulted in damage to public property (during anti-CAA protests).
"In Uttar Pradesh, recovery is being made from those who damaged public property, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
'Nautanki' (theatrics) is still underway and dharna is being held at several places. Earlier, they (protesters) dont use to sing 'Jana Gana Mana', but they have started doing so now.
"You must have seen a video (of a protest) which has gone viral on social media wherein a little girl was speaking against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
"The girl is so young that she cannot speak all those things on her own rather she was made to do that. The Congress and it gang are behind this act, he claimed.
Some Congress leaders like Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid are now "enlightened" as they have said states can't block implementation of the CAA, Maurya said.
"Now (Chhattisgarh) Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, (Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi ji, Rahul ji, Priyanka Vadra ji must have understood this," he said.
The BJP leader blamed former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the Partition of the country.
"There would have been no need of the CAA if the country was not divided on religious lines. The division was not done by Modi ji or Shah ji, but by their (the Gandhi family) forefather Jawaharlal Nehru," he added.
Hailing the revocation of J&K's special status, the BJP leader said, Articles 370 and 35A were like a cancer disease given to the country by the Congress. The disease has now been uprooted forever by Amit Shah under the leadership of Modi ji."