New Delhi: In a hard-hitting attack on the government over the new citizenship law, opposition parties Friday held it responsible for the widespread unrest in the country following the legislation’s enactment and said the society was dangerously inching toward a ‘civil war-like’ situation.
The opposition parties are set to move amendments on President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to both Houses of Parliament, seeking to remove his remarks on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, sources said.
Speaking at a press briefing after Kovind’s address, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government has lowered the prestige of president’s office by including the CAA in his address.
“The society is dangerously inching toward a civil war-like situation and the government is solely responsible for it,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
Azad said the government claiming development in Jammu and Kashmir after making it a Union Territory is a cruel joke with people here, and he demanded that the Centre should apologise. He said it was shameful that the government claimed CAA to be an achievement and included it in president’s address.
During the president’s address opposition members raised slogans when he hailed the amended citizenship act in his address.
While many members came wearing black bands and carrying banners to the House with ‘No CAA’’, ‘No NPR’ and ‘No NRC’ written on them, ongress President Sonia Gandhi and Azad, did not sit at their designated seats in the front row as a mark of protest.
Instead, they took seats in the fifth row along with party MPs Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Benny Behnan and Rahul Gandhi.
Several Congress MPs, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Gaurav Gogoi, were seen sporting black bands as a mark of protest.
When Kovind read out excerpts on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the ruling party members continued to thump the desk for nearly half-a minute. At this point some opposition members raised ‘shame, shame’ slogans.
Towards the end of the address, members of the Trinamool Congress raised banners of ‘No CAA’, ‘No NPR’ and ‘No NRC’. This continued for nearly five minutes.
Among the leaders of opposition parties who wore black bands were NCP, SP, DMK, RJD, CPI-M, CPI, Shiv Sena, JMM, JDS, RSP, Kerala Congress (M), IUML and National Conference, besides the Congress, sources said.
Agencies
