Ravi Shankar Prasad urges Opposition parties not to 'foment communal tension' over CAA

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday urged the Opposition parties, not to instigate communal tension in the country over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from three countries in India's neighbourhood. "Opposition parties are going to meet the President. They have the right to meet the President. But I urge them not to foment communal tension in the country. There should be peace in the country," Prasad told reporters in New Delhi.

"Prime Minister, Home Minister and I have also said that CAA does not apply on any Indian citizen and the act does not create a hurdle to Muslim communities in following their religion. It only applies to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and Jains from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh as these communities are facing religious persecution," he added.

Opposition seeks President's intervention

Amid the ongoing nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Opposition delegation comprising of 13 parties including the Congress, Samajwadi Party and CPI(M), met President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday and appealed to him to roll back the CAA. Congress President, Sonia Gandhi while addressing the media after the Opposition's meeting with the President said that they had requested him to intervene in the situation. This comes after several demonstrations and protests against the CAA turned violent including the Jamia Millia University protests on Sunday and the recent protests in northeast Delhi's Seelampur area which turned violent as demonstrators pelted stones at police personnel who fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. 

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The Citizenship (Amendment) Act has been protested with particular bitterness in the Northeast, where it is seen as a threat to indigeneity. The government has denied that its policy is anti-Muslim and has promised to protect the rights of locals in the Northeast. Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally appealed for calm both after Sunday's violence in Delhi and during the protests in the Northeast. The act seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

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(With ANI inputs)