SC lawyer dispels myths about CAA

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 28

Dispelling myths and misinformation surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Supreme Court lawyer Monika Arora said the Act was not meant to take away

anybody’s citizenship rather it would give citizenship to the people who actually need it.

Addressing a seminar on “CAA: Truth v/s Myth” here today, she said instead of supporting the new Act by actually informing the people about its merit, some anti-nationals were involved in creating disharmony by misinterpreting it.

She said earlier there were 20 per cent Hindus in Pakistan, but the population had now reduced to 1 per cent. Similarly in Bangladesh, there were 22 per cent Hindus, but there also their population came down to only 1-2 per cent.

“The CAA will give citizenship to those refugees who are living in India for the past several years,” she said. Giving an example, Monica said she met a family at Majnu ka Tilla in Delhi that had come from Pakistan where their daughter was raped and converted to Islam and their 12-year-old son was killed because he had refused to read ‘Kalma’.

“This family says they would prefer to die here rather than go back to Pakistan. So, this amendment in the Citizenship Act was meant at giving citizenship to such families,” she said.

She said now the campaign against the new Act had subsided after misinformation about it was countered and there was harmony all around.

Recalling about a similar seminar at Lucknow, she said the seminar was supposed to start at 4 pm, but by 3 pm nearly 10,000 protesters arrived there. However, the authorities made announcement that if anybody was found indulging in any kind of violence, then property of that person would be auctioned off. As soon as the announcement was made, there was nobody left at the spot, she said.

She said state governments were to be blamed for not implementing

the law properly and creating problems over the CAA. She said the Citizenship Amendment Act would be implemented in the country at any cost as citizenship was a national issue and not pertaining to the states.