Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said that if one crore people come to India after the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act there will be ‘riots all around’. He also termed the implementation of the law as BJP’s “dirty vote bank politics” ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to grant citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
Kejriwal, at a press conference, said that with the CAA, the BJP-led Centre has opened the floodgates for the arrival of a large number of poor minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh into India. “There are 3.5 crore minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, even if 1.5 crore of the minorities in neighbouring countries come to India, a dangerous situation will arise.”
“It will be a migration bigger than that of 1947,” said the Aam Aadmi Party convener.
‘Where will we settle them?’
Citing inflation and unemployment among youths, Kejriwal said, “Where will we settle them? How will we give them jobs? The jobs meant for our people will go to them.” The AAP leader also alleged that the BJP wants to spend the money of “our people” in settling poor migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh by giving them houses and jobs here.
Charging at the saffron party for bringing in the law, Kejriwal said that on one hand there’s an army of unemployed in India and the BJP wants to settle Pakistanis and provide employment to their children.
“People in India are facing back-breaking inflation… and the youths are forced to run from pillar to post for jobs. What kind of nonsense is this to bring people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to India and give the rightful employment of our children to them?” he said.
‘There will be riots all around’
The Chief Minister said that migrants come to India, the law and order situation will worsen, suspecting riots across the country,
“Law and order will crumble. There will be a rise in cases of robberies, rapes. There will be riots all around. What will happen to the security situation in the country?” he questioned.
The country demands scrapping of CAA, he said and asked people to vote against the BJP if the law is not repealed. “The BJP government at the Centre done its work in its 10-year rule, there would have been no need for it to implement CAA ahead of the polls.”
Backlash from the BJP
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva hit back at Kejriwal and claimed that the Delhi chief minister “doesn’t even understand that CAA is a legislation to provide shelter to all the persecuted minorities (from neighbouring countries) and not to strip anyone of their citizenship”.
Kejriwal needs to understand that “refugees from Pakistan and Afghanistan are our own and will remain so”, he added.
(With agency inputs)
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Published: 13 Mar 2024, 02:35 PM IST