Congress's agenda should be to lead anti-CAA, NRC protest, says Siddaramaiah

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that Congress's agenda should be to lead the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) protest to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from implementing their Hindu Rashtra agenda.

While speaking on anti CAA and NRC discussion at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office on Thursday, the former chief minister said, "While we face several issues such as economy, unemployment, poverty, and many other things, was it necessary to talk about the CAA and NRC. It should be our (Congress) agenda to lead the anti CAA and NRC protest to stop the BJP from implementing their Hindu Rashtra agenda."

He further stated that the CAA-NRC law was not only against the Constitution, but it was also against humty, and it also badly hurts other communities.

"There are 19 lakh people in Assam detention centres, out of which 8 lakh people are Muslims. What would happen to others? The Home Minister has given some very confusing statements regarding the issue," he said.

"While farmers are committing suicides, atrocities are happening, the economy is in a desperate condition, the government is talking about something else. We will not at all allow our country to become a Hindu Rashtra on the basis of religion," added the senior Congress leader.

Siddaramaiah stated that 'Sarvejana Sukhino Bhavanthu' (Let the people of the world be happy) was their policy, and further said that their agenda was towards a secular country.

Several protests had erupted across the country after the implementation of CAA, which grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghstan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

( With inputs from ANI )