Chidambaram opposes Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, says, 'battleground to shift to SC'

Senior Congress leer P. Chidambaram described Citizenship (Amendment) Bill as "patently unconstitutional" on Tuesday and said with its pass in Parliament, battleground will shift to Supreme Court. After conclusion of a 12-hour-long debate, which saw participation of 38 MPs from across political spectrum, Lok Sabha on Monday midnight passed  Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 with 311 votes in favor and 80 against Bill.

He claimed that elected lawmakers were abdicating ir responsibilities in favour of lawyers and judges. "CAB is unconstitutional. Parliament passes a Bill that is patently unconstitutional and battleground shifts to Supreme Court. Elected Parliamentarians are abdicating ir responsibilities in favour of lawyers and judges!," Chidambaram said in a tweet.

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"That is price we pay for giving a party a brute majority that it uses to trample over wishes of states and people," Chidambaram said in ar tweet.

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019

Opposition leers hir Ranjan Chowdhury, Saugata Roy, N K Premchandran, Gaurav Gogoi, Shashi Tharoor, and Assuddin Owaisi opposed introduction of bill in Lok Sabha, which seeks to give citizenship to n-Muslims from Pakistan, Banglesh, and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution re, saying it was violative of various provisions of Constitution, including move to grant citizenship on basis of religion.

tabling of emotive bill comes even as re were protests and incidents of violence in rastern states with most of student unions and regional political parties opposing it, saying it will nullify provisions of Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. BJP-led NDA government h introduced bill in its previous tenure and got Lok Sabha's approval. But it did t introduce it in Rajya Sabha, apparently due to vehement protests in rast and lack of majority in House.

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