K.T. Rama Rao, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister and the Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Minister of Telangana, spoke about the ongoing Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 issue.
Mr. Rao responded to the question raised by the Indian National Congress (INC) and said, “We have made our party’s decision very clear with regard to CAA. With regard to implementing the National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens, the State government will take appropriate decision whenever the Centre sends it to the State.”
He said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government does not support the CAA, which gives citizenship to the refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan based on religion.
KTR said the Party would stand by the decision of its Members of Parliament (MPs) who voted against the CAA in the Parliament. K. Keshava Rao, the General Secretary in the Parliament representing the TRS in the Parliament opposed the CAA when it was a Bill.
However, due to the majority of MPs belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,) the Bill was passed. Surprisingly the Bill was also passed in the Rajya Sabha and soon with the approval of Mr. Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India, the Bill became an Act.
Though the Bill became an Act, it is yet to be implemented and has several pending cases in the Supreme Court. Citizens of India filed petitions in the SC against the Act, which according to the protestors and opposition parties is anti Muslim .
Since the Act accepts refugees who are minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan due to their religious beliefs and excludes Muslims, they claim the Act to be anti Muslim.
In their justification, the BJP Government said the Act is only to help Jains, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs and Hindus who fled from the aforementioned countries due to discrimination. The citizens of India would not have any effect by this Act as, their citizenship would not be affected.
Speaking about the concerns of the citizens of India, their major fear is, if the Central Government enforces the CAA, the Muslims in India may lose their citizenship. Justifying their protests, the citizens of India quoted the constitution of India, which has secular India as its main ideology.
KTR concluded his press conference stating, the final decision regarding the CAA, NRC and NPR would be taken after the Central Government would ask the State Governments to implement the same.
Stay tuned for further updates.
