The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday attacked the Narendra Modi-led government at Centre over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, saying that “India is moving from democracy to dictatorship”.
Speaking during a debate on CAB, which was introduced in Rajya Sabha by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, TMC’s Derek O’Brien took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the bill.
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“I read that PM said this will be written in golden letters. I will tell you where it will be written; it will be written on the grave of the father of the nation, but which father of the nation? In Karachi, on Jinnah’s grave,” he said.
Ahead of the tabling of the bill in Rajya Sabha, PM Modi had hailed the Citizenship Bill as “historic” and said that it will be “written in golden letters for people who are persecuted on basis of religion”.
Attacking PM Modi over the Citizenship Bill, Derek O’Brien said that “he failed the country made after note ban”.
Citing history to slam the Bill, Derek O’Brien said the CAB has an “eerie similarity” with similar laws in Germany. “The lie today is ‘Bharat Khatre mein hai (India is in danger)’… This is the fake agenda being pushed in the country today just like it was pushed in Germany decades ago,” he said.
“In 1933, there were concentration camps… in 2018 we have detention camps where, by the way, 60 per cent are Bengali Hindus. In 1935, there were citizenship laws to protect people with German blood… today we have a faulty bill [Citizenship (Amendment) Bill] that wants to define who true Indian citizens are,” he said.
“In 1935 you needed an identity to prove your Aryan lineage… you were given something called an ‘ancestor pass’. In 2018 you need a piece of paper to prove you are an Indian citizen. In 1940 there was a plan to deport Jews… called Madagascar Plan. In 2018 we have the ‘Maha’ Plan, also called NRC,” the Trinamool Congress leader said.
“We are unable to take care of people in the country…How would we take care of those coming from another,” he added.
The TMC leader further said that the Citizenship Bill is against the people of Bengal and India while stating that 60 per cent of the those left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were Bengali Hindus.
The bill seeks to give citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and was passed in the Lok Sabha a little after midnight on Tuesday.