The BJP’s ally National People’s Party leader Agatha Sangma on Sunday demanded the repeal of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) at a meeting of constituents of the ruling NDA.
Sangma, the MP from Tura in Meghalaya, urged the government to repeal CAA just as it has repealed farm laws keeping in mind the sentiments of the people.
Sangma made the demand at a meeting of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal.
“Since the farm laws have been repealed and this was done primarily keeping in mind the sentiments of the people, therefore, I requested the government to repeal the CAA keeping in mind the same sort of sentiments of the people from the Northeast,” she told PTI.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, 2019, provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims. The Act sparked huge protests across the country that were primarily led by Muslims and civil society groups.
Coupled with the National Population Register (NPR) and a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), India’s Muslims, who form nearly 15 per cent of the country’s 1.3 billion population, fear that these measures are aimed at marginalising them.
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