Yesterday, PM Modi launched a blistering attack on the Congress and the entire anti CAA lobby during his speeches in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
Replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister stressed upon how even the country’s first Prime Minister, Nehru was also in favour of protecting minorities in Pakistan, something that is being actually realised with the CAA.
PM Modi said, “Pandit Nehru himself was in favour of protecting minorities in Pakistan, I want to ask Congress, was Pandit Nehru communal? Did he want a Hindu Rashtra?”
PM Modi in Lok Sabha: Pandit Nehru himself was in favour of protecting minorities in Pakistan, I want to ask Congress, was Pandit Nehru communal? Did he want a Hindu Rashtra? pic.twitter.com/oHnv277eiz
— ANI (@ANI) February 6, 2020
Exposing the Congress’ hypocrisy on the issue, PM Modi also brought up the Nehru-Liaquat pact of 1950 for protection of minority rights in India and Pakistan. He again questioned the Congress as to why Nehru did not mention all citizens, but only religious minorities of Pakistan in the 1950 pact.
With his reference to Nehru, PM Modi has made it clear that a law on the lines of CAA was always in the offing. Congress, which failed to bring such a law, is today opposing the Modi government for enacting the CAA though even Nehru had supported the cause of protecting religious minorities in Pakistan.
During his speech on the floor of the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister also referred to Nehru’s letter to Gopinath Bordoloi, Assam’s first Chief Minister.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed Congress over Citizenship Amendment Act during his vote of thanks in Lok Sabha. “I want to ask Congress. Was Pandit Nehru communal? Did he want a Hindu Rashtra?” he said. Watch pic.twitter.com/pW3VO1kEvP
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) February 6, 2020
In this letter written in 1950, Nehru had asked Bordoloi to distinguish between Hindu refugees and Muslim migrants from what was then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and had further iterated that the law could be amended to grant citizenship to the Hindu refugees if needed.
The Amendment Nehru considered in 1950, has been enacted around seven decades later. But now the Congress and the chauvinistic groups in Assam went on a complete rampage.
The anti CAA lobby in Assam wants all ‘outsiders’ including illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Bengali Hindus to be excluded from Assam. However, since the days of Nehru, the distinction between persecuted Bengali Hindu refugees and illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators has been recognised.
It is this distinction that the BJP has also highlighted. North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) chief, Himanta Biswa Sarma has time and again highlighted that Bengali Hindu refugees are not a threat to Assamese culture.
In fact, Sarma has even gone to the extent of saying that if the people of Assam do not identify their friends and enemies, AIUDF chief, Badruddin Ajmal, who is believed to be appeasing the Bangladeshi Muslim vote bank, will become the Assam Chief Minister.
Now, by referring Nehru’s letter to Bordoloi, PM Modi has exposed how Congress has completely forgotten and given up on Nehru’s words on the issue of granting citizenship upon persecuted religious minorities coming from the then West Pakistan and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
Last one month or so has witnessed intense anti CAA propaganda, with Congress leading from the front. However, all it took was a single speech from PM Modi to badly expose and humiliate the grand old party over the sensitive issue.
