Cabinet likely to clear Citizenship Bill today

New Delhi: The Union government is likely to clear the Citizenship (Am­en­dment) Bill, 2016, at a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday morning. The Cabinet meeting is scheduled at 9.30 am.

The BJP leadership on Tuesday underscored the significance of the CAB by equating its importance with the move to nullify Article 370 provisions, with senior leader Rajnath Singh asking party MPs to be present in large numbers when Union Home Minister Amit Shah tables it in Parliament.

The issue of absenteeism among BJP MPs from Parliament was also raised at the parliamentary party meeting, as Singh underlined PM Modi's dissatisfaction over lack of their adequate presence many times, sources said.

Rejecting the Opposition's criticism of the Citizenship Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, if they faced religious persecution there, Singh asserted that the BJP has always worked to unite the country and its people.

Sources said Singh also made a reference to the charge that the Bill was against secularism as its beneficiaries excluded Muslims.

He said the three neighbouring countries were essentially Islamic nations and so it is non-Muslims and not Muslims who are at the receiving end of religious persecution there.