2 days earlier Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha with the majority of 311 MPs voting in favor in comparison to 80 MPs voting against it. After that the bill was passed to the Rajya Sabha and in late evening yesterday it was announced that 125 MPs have voted in the favor of this bill becoming a law.
Citizenship Amendment Bill will soon become a law and it will be interesting to know the reactions of various MPs that were present in the upper house of parliament during the debate over this bill.
Home Minister Amit Shah :
“This Bill does not hurt the Article 14 of the Constitution. Neither the Citizenship Bill, nor triple talaq bill nor bill scrapping Article 370 are anti-Muslim. This Bill is to give citizenship, not to take away citizenship; Citizenship of Indian Muslims is not being taken away.”
Anand Sharma of Congress :
“Why the hurry? It should have been sent to Parliamentary committee. The Bill was passed as if the country is in some sort of a crisis.
We oppose it. The reason for opposition is not political but moral and constitutional. The Bill is an assault on Indian Constitution and democracy.
It hurts the soul of India. It fails the morality test.”
Congress leader P Chidambaram :
This (bill) is a slap on the face of Parliament. Parliamentarians are being asked to do something unconstitutional and then the baby is passed on to the judiciary and in the judiciary, lawyers and judges will decide what you have done is constitutional or not. Knowing this is unconstitutional, I am afraid this government is ramming through (with) this bill in order to advance its Hindutva agenda.”
“This is a sad day. Thankfully they are not amending the Constitution, they are only making a law. I am absolutely confident, I am absolutely clear in my mind, this law will be struck down.”
Derek O’Brien, Trinamool Congress :
“There will be a people’s movement against the Citizenship Bill. We are moving from a democracy to dictatorship. The elements of CAB drawn from Nazi copybook. Pilot NRC failed in one state, and now how you say it will be implemented in 27 states. It’s a fight of majority versus the morality.”
NPF’s KG Kenye :
“People in the northeast have no religious bias and aren’t communal… It’s not about religion, minority or majority communities. It’s about the illegal migrants who’ve come into our region and are threatening to run over our population.”
Congress leader Kapil Sibal :
“Those who have no idea of India cannot protect the idea of India. I don’t understand which history books home minister Amit Shah has read. The two-nation theory is not our theory. It was perpetrated by Savarkar. I request the home minister to withdrawn that allegation against the Congress because we believe in that one nation, and you don’t believe in that.”
Jagat Prakash Nadda, BJP :
“In 2003, Dr Manmohan Singh in Rajya Sabha said to then deputy PM Advani ji on treatment of refugees and persecution of minorities in countries like Bangladesh that we should have more liberal approach in granting citizenship to them. So, we are only following what he (Singh) said.”
MDMK Leader Vaiko :
“If this obnoxious, abominable, undemocratic, unreasonable, unpardonable, unjustifiable, unconstitutional Bill is passed today in this Council of state, it will become a black chapter in the annals of this Upper House.”
