BJP's pro-CAA campaign is laughable: Ashok Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Sunday ridiculed the BJP's door-to-door awareness campaign about the merits of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. If the controversial legislation -- which offers citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh -- had any merit, such a campaign would not have been necessary, he said, speaking to reporters here.

'Had the Act been good..'

"There was a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered `Mann Ki Baat' (his monthly radio talk), and the entire country listened to him. "And now for the CAA, party leaders and ministers are forced to go from door to door to convince people. It is a laughable situation," the senior Congress leader said.

"Had the Act been good, they would not have been forced to go door-to-door," he said.

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In the BJP-ruled Assam, 19 lakh people were found to have no documentary proof of citizenship and 16 lakh of them were Hindu, Gehlot said, asking why the government was not giving citizenship to them through the new law. "There are some 10,000 people in Rajasthan who need citizenship. The other day Union home minister Amit Shah was in Rajasthan to address a rally, but he did not even mention offering citizenship to them," he said.

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"It means they are not serious about their own law," he said. A country formed on the basis of religion does not remain stable, he said. "Pakistan was founded on the basis of Islam. Why did Pakistan split into two countries during prime minister Indira Gandhi's time? Because it was formed on the basis of religion, you have seen what it leads to," he said.

Gehlot also alleged that the BJP's "hidden agenda" was to turn India into a "Hindu Rashtra".

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There were once secessionist tendencies in Tamil Nadu and Punjab, he said, adding "how many countries you want to make out of India?" The Rajasthan CM also demanded that the government bring out a white paper on the state of economy. "The economy has been crippled because of the Centre's policies. Former economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan have already expressed concerns about the economy," he said.  "Most of the economic indicators are going down...but instead of focusing on it, the Centre is diverting attention to the Citizenship Act and National Register of Citizens," he said.

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