Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to rectify historic blunder: Amit Shah

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 has been brought to rectify a historic blunder, said Home Minister Amit Shah while replying to the debate on the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Shah said that the need to bring the Bill goes back to the partition and Pakistan's failure to protect its minorities.

"Despite Kabil Sibal and Anand Sharma's insistence, I would once again say that the partition happened on the basis of religion. It was a blunder, which forced me to introduce this Bill," he said.

Shah said: "There would have been no need to introduce this Bill. This Bill is to address the problem created by the partition. Also, if any government would have solved the problem, there would have been no need for this Bill."

Shah also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government is not there to only run the country but also set things right.

"If this Bill was brought 50 years ago, then the situation had not been so severe today," he said.

He took a jibe at opposition when some members laughed during his reply. "Laughing is very easy. There is no bar on laughing. But when you laugh, people see that you are laughing on their problems," he said.

According to Nehru-Liyaqat, it was promised that religious minorities of each country would get equal opportunities in politics, services and permission to practice the faith.

"What happened to that promise? I can quote several laws of Pakistan. You cant fight election there ... What happened to minorities? From CJI, President, Vice President, ECI Chief to Rajya Sabha chairman, every post was held by Muslims in India," said Shah.

( With inputs from ANI )