Pawan Khera, a senior Congress leader on Wednesday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 will be revoked if the party came to power.
He also said that the Prime Minister was afraid of the people of Manipur who are facing an ethnic violence since May last year.
Addressing one of the press conferences he said that the cut off date for 1971 is sacrosanct for Assam. But that CAA will take away and 2014 will be there new cut off date.
He was referring to the cut-off date of March 25, 1971, for granting Indian citizenship to people entering Assam from Bangladesh, according to the Assam Accord.
Under the CAA, the Modi government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
“The Congress will repeal the CAA if voted to power,” Khera said.
There were massive protests in some parts of the country including the Northeastern region after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and got the presidential assent. The home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in last month that rules for implementing the CAA will be issued before the coming Lok Sabha polls.
On Modi’s scheduled visit to Assam later this week, the Congress leader criticized him for not visiting Manipur.
“Why is the prime minister afraid of visiting Manipur? We request him to visit the state for at least half an hour when he comes here,” he said.
At least 219 people have been killed in Manipur in ethnic strife in Manipur.
Alleging that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was involved in corruption, the Congress leader claimed that the people would give him a befitting reply.
Khera also claimed that the Congress will perform well in Assam in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election. ( With PTI Inputs )