CAA is law for providing citizenship not taking it away: Anurag Thakur

New Delhi: Union Minister and senior BJP leader Anurag Thakur on Wednesday lashed out at the opponents of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying thousands of Dalit families from the neighbouring countries now living in India were waiting for citizenship.

Speaking at a programme at the Delhi BJP office here, Thakur said the CAA is a law for providing citizenship not taking it away.

"Thousands of Dalit families from the neighbouring countries whose two to three generations have passed are waiting for citizenship for years," Thakur said.

"Do those who came from Pakistan and whose two-three generations have passed have no right to have citizenship," he asked.

After the partition of the country, then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru promised that minorities living in the neighbouring countries would be preserved but the Congress in the last 75 years did nothing for it, Thakur charged.

"Modi government did what the Congress could not do in 75 years. It was the strength of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that ensured whether Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains or Parsis facing atrocities in the neighbouring countries will be provided citizenship by the Government of India," he said.

Thakur also expressed pain over AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's opposition to the CAA.

The BJP leader charged that Kejriwal entered politics making false promises like he would not have a big bungalow, official vehicles and security. He pledged honesty but his ministers are in jail, Thakur said.

"Kejriwal has polluted politics. How can a person not feel the pain of those who faced so many atrocities whose daughters were picked up and raped?" he asked.

The Delhi chief minister earlier in the day alleged that the CAA implementation was "dirty politics" of the BJP to create a vote bank.

Meanwhile, the leaders of various political parties including former AAP MLA ND Sharma joined the BJP in the presence of Thakur, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and others.