Amit Shah to Rahul Gandhi: ‘Not even your grandmother can repeal CAA’
Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday dared the Opposition to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act, saying not even Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother can revoke the law “if she comes back to earth”.
He claimed that Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav were against the CAA.
“Not even Rahul’s (nani) grandmother, if she comes back to earth, can repeal CAA,” Amit Shah said during a poll rally in Lakhimpur Kheri.
“Under PM Modi’s leadership, India will grant citizenship to those (minorities) who have come from Pakistan and Bangladesh,” he added.
In March, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government implemented the CAA, which makes it easier for non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – who entered India before December 31 – to get Indian citizenship. The development came four years after Parliament passed the law in December 2019.
The notification of the Act triggered criticism from Opposition leaders, who claimed that the notified rules were “unconstitutional”, “discriminatory” and violative of the “secular principle of citizenship” enshrined in the Constitution.
Opposition will put ‘Babri lock’ on Ram Temple: Amit Shah
During the rally in Lakhimpur, Amit Shah also claimed that the Opposition would put a “Babri lock” on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya if they got to power.
Referring to Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav’s statement in which he had said the Ram temple issue is “bekar’ (useless), Shah said: “Ram Gopal says the temple is useless. Remember me, though it is not going to happen, if the opposition parties come to power, they will put a Babri naam ka tala (Babri lock) at the Ram temple.”
He also accused the Opposition of stalling the Ram Temple issue for over 70 years.
“When you made Narendra Modi the prime minister for the second time, he not only won the legal dispute involving the Ram Janmabhoomi but also performed the bhoomi puja (groundbreaking ceremony) of the Ram temple and its pran pratishtha (consecration) was held in January,” he pointed out.