After Janata Dal (United) leader Prashant Kishor, party general secretary Pavan Varma has also expressed disappointment over the party’s stand to support the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, 9 December.
Varma tweeted, “I urge Shri Nitish Kumar to reconsider support to the #CAB in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and against the unity and harmony of the country, apart from being against the secular principles of the JDU. Gandhiji would have strongly disapproved it.”
The JD(U) is BJP’s ally in Bihar.
On Monday, Kishor took to Twitter saying, "Disappointed to see JDU supporting #CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion."
The bill, presented by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, was passed in the Lok Sabha with 311 votes. Among the parties that supported the bill was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).
In the Lok Sabha, JD(U) MP Rajeev Ranjan Singh said that the bill promises Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, and hence his party supports this bill.
Kishor has also actively spoken against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. He said it was a botched-up exercise, reported NDTV.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill proposed that members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till 31 December 2014 facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
The bill will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha for its nod.
(With Inputs from NDTV)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)