New Delhi: More than a week after protests ignited in various parts of the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarified on Sunday that both the new Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC) has nothing to do with Indian citizens (both Hindus and Muslims).
"The citizenship law and the NRC has nothing to do with Indian Muslims. They have nothing to worry about," PM Modi said while defending the contentious law during BJP's rally at Ramlila Maidan, a little over a kilometre from Old Delhi's Daryaganj that was hit by violence during a protest against the CAA.
He further said that infiltrators never "reveal" themselves, unlike refugees who never "hide" their identities.
Making a scathing attack on the opposition parties, especially Congress, the Prime Minister said: "It is a lie which is being spread by Congress and urban Naxals that Muslims will be sent to detention centers. There are no such detention centers in the country."
He asked Muslims to look at his "track record" and not listen to "tape record" of his rivals.
While speaking about the support he had received and the highest civilian honour bestowed on him by Muslim countries, Modi asserted that it has scared the Congress and its friends. "They (Congress and other opposition parties) are worried if Muslims across the world support me so much, then how long can they frighten the Indian Muslims (against me)," he claimed.
"In the history of India, this is the first time we have such kind of relations with Islamic countries. There are a lot of reasons behind it. Today India is constantly trying to deepen their relationships with many other countries. Afghanistan or Palestine, Saudi Arabia or UAE, Maldives or Bahrain – all these countries have given India their highest civilian honour. They have tried to deepen their relationship with the culture of India," said the Prime Minister while adding that Muslim countries have released many Indian prisoners, and Saudi has issued more Hajj quota.
Modi further accused the Opposition of spreading rumours over the new amendment law and of misleading the nation for the sake of their political gain. "India had an opportunity to expose Pakistan over its discrimination against minorities but it was lost due to their politics," he condemned.
He also hit out at the chief ministers who have claimed that they will not implement the amended citizenship law in their states, saying they should have first consulted their legal officers. The central government has maintained that the Constitution makes it binding on states to implement the law passed by the Parliament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to start his nearly 100-minutes long speech with the slogan of "Vividhta me Ekta, Bharat ki Visheshta" (Unity in diversity is India's speciality). He appealed that protesters should remain nonviolent and they should not attack policemen who are doing their job. He also appealed that the protester should not destroy public property.
Referring to the protests, Modi said he was pained to see stones in the hands of protestors but was also comforted when he saw some of them holding the tricolour.
Twenty DCP-rank officials, as many as 1,000 personnel from Delhi police, anti-drone teams and NSG commandos were deployed in the Prime Minister's rally. Additionally, 20 companies of an outside force and each company comprising 70-80 personnel were also deployed there, to ensure protesters demanding the scrapping of the contentious CAA do not reach the venue.