New Delhi: Amid widespread criticism against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the Opposition, including the Congress, using the Narendra Modi government’s move to attack it as being “anti-Muslim”, the BJP on Thursday reminded the Congress that former PM Manmohan Singh too had advocated citizenship for minorities from India’s neighbours.
The BJP’s Twitter handle posted a video clip of Dr Singh’s Parliament speech in 2003 when he was Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and BJP stalwart L.K. Advani was deputy prime minister.
The clip is from a debate on the Citizenship Bill which had been brought by the then Atal Behari Vajpayee-led government.
“In 2003, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Dr Manmohan Singh, then Leader of the Opposition, asked for a liberal approach in granting citizenship to minorities, who are facing persecution, in neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan. The Citizenship Amendment Act does just that,” the BJP tweeted with the video clip.
