On 10 January, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly passed a resolution supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. Accordingly, they congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, for securing the passage of the bill in both the houses of Parliament.
The said resolution was passed with a majority vote by Pradipsinh Jadeja, a member of Legislative assembly from Vatva constituency in Gujarat, after a two-long hour of intense debate over the topic.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have shown far-sightedness by taking a bold and historic decision to amend the Citizenship Act by which Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Parsis of three neighboring countries will be able to get Indian citizenship,” stated the resolution.
However, the resolution was opposed by the Congress MLAs, who claimed that persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan were not offered Indian citizenship by earlier governments because of their ‘policy of appeasement.’ Further, independent legislator Jignesh Mevani termed it a “black day” in the history of Gujarat’s Assembly.
“Since CM Vijay Rupani himself was born in Burma and then came to India; he should not support CAA, which is discriminatory and violates the constitutional principles of secularism and pluralism,” Mr. Mevani asserted after the resolution.
An uproar took place during the proceedings when the Congress MLA Imran Khedawala, displayed a poster opposing the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC), written with his own blood. Following which the House was suspended for 15 minutes.
