Telangana State Legislative Council adopts anti-CAA resolution

Hyderabad: BJP Legislative Party Leader in the State Legislative Council N Ramachander Rao asked the State government not to fall in the trap of the vested interests spreading malicious campaign against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Speaking on a government-sponsored resolution urging the Centre to reconsider the contours of the current CAA, National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), which has created ripples among the Muslims and other citizens, he said: "CAA is a specific Act to address special circumstances."

He said that the CAA is the consequence of the failure on the part of Pakistan to implement the Nehru Liaquat Pact (NLP) resulted in the non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan and later in Bangladesh suffered religious persecution.

'They have nowhere to go but to come to India to seek protection' and added that the non-Muslim minorities at the time of partition in Pakistan was17 per cent, but the same is currently down to 1.5 per cent. "Where have all others have gone, either they were killed, converted by force or migrated.," he said.

Further, the CAA is neither anti-religious and anti-Muslim but it only meant to provide citizenship addressing the specific situation with a specific law and there is nothing that prevents others to seek citizenship as per the existing laws of the land, he said.

However, countering the same, Government Chief Whip Karne Prabhakar alleged that the BJP government at the Centre has brought the CAA with an inherent bias to expand its footprint in the North-Eastern States by granting citizenship to a selected few.

In the wake of CAA and NPR process, people in the country are worried not knowing how to prove the antecedents of their citizenship, he said. The TRS MLC also asked as to why the Centre did not extend the same to the Tamils, who have come from Sri Lanka?

Congress MLC T Jeevan Reddy accused the BJP-led Centre for creating discord among people in the name of religion and extended his party's support to the resolution. He also asked the government not to implement the NPR exercise in the State.

AIMIM MLC Syed Jafri found fault with several BJP ministers, MPs and CMs giving statements creating discontent among people on the religious lines.

Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy said that the BJP and the Centre cannot achieve anything positive discriminating about 20 crore people in the country.