Delhi election: Congress manifesto promises resolution against CAA

The Congress on Sunday released its manifesto for Delhi polls, promising to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act if elected to power.

In the last column of its manifesto, the party said that it will pass the resolution in the first session of the Delhi Assembly after the elections and will ask the Centre to withdraw the Act.

The manifesto stated: "The CAA brought by the BJP is against the basic spirit of our constitution. By February 21, 2020, INC government will go to the Apex court and challenge the constitutional validity of the CAA under article 131."

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) facilitates citizenship to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. After the passage of the Act in Parliament, violence erupted in various parts of the country in which scores of people were killed. A major anti-CAA protest is also going on at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh area.

The Congress has been vocal against the CAA ever since it was passed by Parliament. However, the BJP-led Central government has claimed that the CAA was conceptualised by the Manmohan Singh government, and has been brought only on humanitarian ground fulfilling Mahatma Gandhi's wish.