Former union minister and senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said with the CAA, the BJP-led central government has brought the logic of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Jinnah.
Tharoor condemned the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 and termed it as “unconstitutional” as the foundation of Indian independence clearly says religion has nothing to do with citizenship.
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But as per the CAA, non-Muslim minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian — who migrated to India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh till December 31, 2014, following persecution over their faith, are eligible for Indian citizenship.
A media report quoted Tharoor as saying: “Unlike Pakistan, we have always believed that the country is for everyone.”
“And that is the way we have lived like for 70 years. On principle, CAA is wrong. The central government has brought Jinnah’s logic,” said the parliamentarian while speaking at the Jaipur Literary Festival.
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Tharoor said the country is going through challenging times.
He said it is important for every citizen to preserve the originality of thinking and freshness of ideas.
Tharoor said Pakistan’s founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s victory will be completed if the Citizenship (Amendment) Act leads to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in which a large section of the population would be deprived of its rights if it fails to prove its citizenship.
When asked about his reported remark that “CAA implementation would be the fulfilment of Jinnah’s two-nation theory” at the Jaipur Literature Festival, Tharoor said, “I would not say Jinnah has won but he is winning.”
A media report quoted Tharoor as saying: “If CAA would lead to NPR and NRC that would pursue the same line. If that happens, you can say that Jinnah’s victory is complete. From wherever Jinnah is, he would say he was right that Muslims deserve a separate country because Hindus can’t be just towards the Muslims.”
Tharoor said the CAA issue is a central issue.
The resolutions passed by different state assemblies including those of Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal were political statements telling the Centre and the world that they were not happy with the move, he added.