Bhubaneswar: Senior party leader and BJD MP from Puri Pinaki Misra, Sunday, reiterated the support of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at the time of country-wide opposition of the legislation.
Speaking to the media from the state capital, the lawyer-cum-politician tried to allay fears and concerns relating to the law. Misra said that the CAA is not going to affect any Indian but, at the same time, termed the National Register of Citizen (NRC) a “problem”.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Misra also said that there was a need of an awareness drive by the BJP fraction to take people into confidence on the issue of CAA. He welcomed the recent decision of the saffron party to launch the Jan Jagran Abhiyaan to spread awareness about CAA.
He said, “In the House we supported CAA but our CM has categorically said that NRC is not acceptable in Odisha. Don’t worry about CAA. It is not going to pose any danger to Indians. NRC is the problem.”
He also added, “It is good that the BJP has launched programmes to make people aware about the law. Problems arose because they had gone ahead with the law without taking people into confidence. It should have been done much earlier.”
With the launch of the programme, several Union ministers have started visiting several states to take people into confidence on the controversial bill. Union ministers and senior BJP leaders like Faggan Singh Kulasate and Rajiv Pratap Rudy visited Odisha Sunday to engage in dialogues with the people in Kendrapara and Puri respectively.
Kulasate said, “The matters of CAA and NRC have been politicised much. It has been used to gain political mileage. There is no proposal as of now to enforce NRC in India. These political parties should have worked towards creating peace in the country on such matters.”
On the other hand, Sarat Rout, Congress leader from the state, Sunday, attacked the BJP government at the Centre and their awareness drive on CAA. He said that such movement will only work towards creating communal tension and destroys the country’s unity and communal harmony. He also accused the BJP of spreading misinformation.
