Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that the government is carrying out the agenda of Savarkar and Jinnah by pushing forward the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the parliament.
"34 million Muslims who were living in the Indian territory at the time of partition got Indian citizenship because they were born in India. Savarkar and Jinnah wanted partition and this government is doing what Savarkar and Jinnah wanted. It is a political agenda of the government keeping in mind the 2024 elections. They are not concerned with issues of people like unemployment, falling economy, etc but they only act on populist issues such as these," Sibal told ANI.
"The Home Minister probably does not know the right history and he probably does not even know the constitution well. Article 5 of the constitution says that whosoever was born in the territory of India irrespective of his religion and whose parents are Indians is an Indian citizen. Citizenship was never granted based on religion," he added.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed with a majority of 311 votes against 80 votes in Lok Sabha where 391 members were present and voting.
The bill will be tabled in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
It seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.
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