Congress will repeal CAA if voted to power: Pawan Khera

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera on Wednesday, 6 March asserted that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 will be repealed if the party comes to power after the Lok Sabha elections.

He also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not visiting Manipur, which has been witnessing ethnic strife since May last year.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, Khera said, “The cut-off date of 1971 is sacrosanct for Assam. But CAA will take it away and 2014 will be the cut-off date."

He was referring to the cut-off date of 25 March, 1971, for granting Indian citizenship to people entering Assam from Bangladesh, according to the Assam Accord.

Under the CAA, the Modi government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians – from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till 31 December, 2014.

“The Congress will repeal the CAA if voted to power,” Khera said.

There were massive protests in some parts of the country including the Northeastern region after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and got the presidential assent. The home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in last month that rules for implementing the CAA will be issued before the coming Lok Sabha polls.

On Modi's scheduled visit to Assam later this week, the Congress leader criticised him for not visiting Manipur.

"Why is the prime minister afraid of visiting Manipur? We request him to visit the state for at least half an hour when he comes here," he said.

At least 219 people have been killed in Manipur in ethnic strife in Manipur.

Alleging that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was involved in corruption, the Congress leader claimed that the people would give him a befitting reply.

Khera also claimed that the Congress will perform well in Assam in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.