India only shelter for persecuted minorities from Pak, Bangladesh & Afghanistan: Union Min

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said India is only shelter for religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs and or mirities who come from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, for safety of ir life and hour.

"India owes responsibility towards mirities living in se countries which proclaim Islam as ir state religion," Singh said here while launching BJP's countrywide 10-day mass contact drive to spread awareness about Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Accompanied by senior party colleagues, including former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta and former minister Sat Sharma, he began by visiting house of veteran columnist, writer and Padmashri awardee K L Pandita, where he spent time with m discussing Act.

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Later, he visited prominent social activist Amjad Mirza, eminent Sikh religious leader Baba Swaranjit Singh, retired High Court judge Justice G D Sharma, veteran journalist and former bureau head of Hind Samachar group Gopal Sachar, retired principal of Jammu government medical college Subhash Gupta, social activist and president of Peoples' Forum Ramesh Sabharwal, among ors.

During his interaction with m, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office claimed that Congress leaders and ir allies protesting against Act are doing so without "conviction".

He opined that if a "survey" was conducted among family members of se Congress leaders, n, even y would t support ir "anti-CAA stand".

" trdy of Congress party and contemporary leaders of Congress is that eir y do t read ir own history or are blissfully igrant of statements made by ir own party patriarchs and former prime ministers," he said.

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minister recalled that Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950 was inspired by realisation on part of n Congress government headed by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that mirities, particularly Hindus, were t getting a fair deal in Pakistan.

"In 1949, Nehru had written a letter expressing concern about people coming in from n East Pakistan, which is w Bangladesh, and while doing so, he had referred to Hindus coming from re as 'refugees' and Muslims arriving here as 'immigrants'," Singh said.

Furr, Nehru had stated that India owed a "responsibility" to se refugees, minister said.

Referring to opposition of senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to amended legislation, minister said someone should show m records of proceedings of winter session of Parliament in 1950 when ir great-grandfar (Nehru) had himself said that y deserved to be given citizenship and if law was inadequate for it, n, law should be changed.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi should actually be given credit for showing cour and conviction to carry forward task, which Congress government lacked, to accomplish this," minister opined.

Singh reiterated that a false fear psychosis against Muslims is being sought to be manufactured when re is place as safe and comfortable to live for community as India.

Turning tables on opposition to National Population Register(NPR) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), Singh pointed out that PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been stating that exercise on NRC is yet to begin.

He also said that it was n Union home minister P Chidambaram, who had stated in Parliament in 2010 that NPR could be a basis for NRC. 

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