Shah said the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the national capital were turned into communal riots. "I call upon my Muslim brothers and sisters that false propaganda is being spread on the issue of CAA. This Act is not to take anyone's citizenship but to give citizenship," said Shah.
He urged the crowd attending a pro-CAA rally to give a missed call to the 8866288662, pledging their support to the legislation. Shah also sought to dispel 'rumours' of discord within the NDA in Bihar and said CM Nitish Kumar will be the alliance leader in the state.
In a notification, the Registrar General of India said the decision has been taken as the exercise to enumerate citizens in the NRC, a list of Assam's residents, could not be completed within the specified date of June 30.
Sonowal assured people that the state government will provide legal aid to poor people in their fight against exclusion from the NRC so that they can pursue their cases in foreigners tribunals and in higher courts.
The Shiv Sena chief said an atmosphere is being created in the country that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is 'dangerous' for Muslims, but added that the exercise will not be carried out in Maharashtra.
It is going to be a rough and brutal 2020 for India as its government pushes on with its ideological agenda, and the citizens do whatever they can to protect themselves, notes Aakar Patel.
'Our modern icons have assumed infallibility and think course correction or admission of a mistake as taboo.' 'Much will depend on the sagacity of the national leadership to show humility that our Gods showed.' 'Else, we are doomed in the coming year to divert our attention to firefighting rather than the task of nation building,' warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has submitted before the Supreme Court that it is discriminatory to exclude Tamil refugees from the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and prayed that the legislation be declared null and void as it is unconstitutional and "destroys the basic fabric of secularism."
Here's what the home minister said in reply to the debate on citizenship amendment bill.
'I have stopped going to college and instead come here to protest.' 'What is the point of going to college when you are unsure about your citizenship?' 'I am here to protest and save my future.'
The final list of the NRC will be published on August 31.
The 48-second video purportedly shows some seven to eight paramilitary and police personnel entering the Old Reading Hall and beating students with lathis.
Bhagwat further emphasised that no Muslim will face any loss due to the citizenship law.
Why are the protesters still on their own and why are political parties abstaining from joining this mass movement? Aakar Patel explains.
The draft NRC was published on July 30 and included the names of 2.9 crore people out of the total 3.29 crore applications. There has been a huge controversy over the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the draft NRC.
He questioned why only migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given citizenship under the amended law and not the Sri Lankan Tamils.
The 78-year-old Naveen is on the cusp of creating history. He must win the forthcoming Assembly polls to become India's longest-serving chief minister, a record held by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
'India is growing at the lowest rate in the last decade.' 'If it continues in that path then the jobs and prosperity that has been promised by this government and on the basis of which it was voted in, will continue to elude us,' says Aakar Patel.
The BJP, which leads the ruling coalition at the Centre, hit right back, dismissing her allegation as 'baseless' and asserting she will be ousted from power 'democratically' after the assembly elections due next year.
Sadhana Ramachandran and Sanjay Hegde speaking to the protesters said, "The Supreme Court has upheld your right to protest. But then other citizens also have their rights and it should also be maintained."
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said there is no alternative to the Trinamool Congress, and no other party can take its place in the state.
In an interview to Gulf News, referring to India's new citizenship law, Hasina said, "We don't understand why (the Indian government) did it. It was not necessary."
'The JD-U has become an ideology-less accessory to the BJP,' says Ambassador Pavan Varma, who has been expelled from the JD-U.
'Shaheen Bagh is no longer a mere ghetto of lower middle class Muslims.' 'Now, it is a metaphor for resistance, secularism and struggle,' notes Md. Zeeshan Ahmad.
'Our country does not need an NRC. We need to improve our economy which is in a bad condition.'
'Modi should arrest Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Sharma.' 'These leaders were instigating mobs and spreading hatred and they must be thrown in jail.' 'I had seen dreams of a new India under Modi, but now I am disillusioned with him.'
In this COVID-19 phase, the BJP leveraged its pre-eminence again to tip the power scales in its favour and relegate its allies in the National Democratic Alliance to a lesser position. Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
The anti-CAA protest was an ugly rant more consistent with the violent chaos of anarchy, argues Vivek Gumaste.
'The first year of the Modi government's second term has laid the roadmap for the future and we will embark on it with gusto,' promises Gopal Krishna Agrawal, the BJP's national spokesperson on economic affairs.
'The brutal violence of the UP government's first response to the anti-CAA protests suggests that the BJP will test drive the NPR/NRC in UP, where it has both a massive majority in the assembly and a chief minister whose instinct for Hindutva extremism and whose appetite for punitive policing allows a prime minister as darkly majoritarian as Modi to appear statesman-like,' notes Mukul Kesavan.
The leaders alleged that those who had no contribution in the freedom struggle wanted to spread fear 'in the name of nationalism', suppress the voice of people and were questioning the legacy of Congress.
Trinamool leaders have claimed the NRC process and subsequent verification is vote bank politics. Other critics call it as modified ethnic cleansing. But putting poll rhetoric aside, the issue dates back to a time when many of these leaders had no political relevance.
'You know the difference between being brought up by a mother and a step-mother?' 'As long as Amma was there we had nothing to fear. Now the step-mother is there and we are on the streets.'
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were on Tuesday stopped by police from entering Meerut on their way to meet the families of those who died during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Restrictions on the Kalindi Kunj road between Noida and Delhi continued on Friday after it was briefly opened by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday night, officials said. The Delhi Police admitted that the protesters had not blocked the parallel road, but they had barricaded it to provide security to the protest site.
The meeting was convened by the Congress. Six major parties -- the DMK, the SP, the BSP, the TMC, the AAP and the Shiv Sena -- choose to stay away. The BJP took a swipe at the absence of major opposition parties at the meet and also said that their anti-CAA resolution must've made Pak happy.
'The CAA should be kept in abeyance, without making it a prestige issue.'
'Laying down a clear policy on the future of illegal migrants will dispel anxieties and help in implementing the CAA, NPR and also the NCR,' suggests former Union home secretary Dr Madhav Godbole.
'Tell me, one BJP policy that Mamata has opposed and is fighting tooth and nail?' Be it Article 370, instant triple talaq, be it CAA/NRC/NPR, be it notebandi, FDI, she has aligned with the BJP.'
'You cannot support CAA and simultaneously say there will be no NRC in Bihar.' 'If Akali Dal has a clear-cut point of view on this issue, I want the same from the JD-U.'
The NRC has been discussed neither in Parliament nor in the Cabinet, Modi said on Sunday.