We must speak out now or we will regret later: Amarinder Singh slams CAA

"Why have Muslims been excluded? And why have they (Centre) not included Jews in the CAA?" asked the Punjab CM

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday said the amended Citizenship Act was against the secular fabric of the country and compared it with the "ethnic and religious cleansing of Hitler's Germany".

"What happened in Germany under Hitler in 1930 is happening in India now..Germans did not speak then, and they regretted it, but we have to speak now so that we do not regret later," Singh said in the Punjab Assembly during a discussion on the resolution, which was adopted by a voice vote, seeking immediate repeal of the CAA.

Pointing to the omission of Muslims and such other communities as Jews from the ambit of citizenship under the CAA, the resolution asked for a repeal of the Act "to avoid any discrimination on the basis of religion in granting citizenship and to ensure equality before law for all religious groups in India", according to a release by the CMO.

"Why have Muslims been excluded? And why have they (Centre) not included Jews in the CAA?" pointing out that Punjab had a Jew Governor, General Jacob, who also fought for the nation in the 1971 war, the release added.

According to the official release, the Punjab CM urged the Opposition, particularly the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), "to read Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf to understand the dangers of CAA." He said he would get the book translated and distributed so that all could read and grasp the historical mistakes that Hitler made.

The resolution was introduced in the Assembly by Cabinet Minister Brahm Mohindra and was put to vote by Speaker Rana KP Singh, according to a press release.

During the discussion on the resolution, the CM also urged the Centre to put on hold the work on the National Population Register (NPR), till forms and documents associated with it are amended suitably, in order to allay apprehensions that it is a prelude to the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

After the Assembly passed the resolution, Singh said that the Punjab government will join Kerala in the Supreme Court on the matter.

"We are going to join Kerala in Supreme Court on this issue," he had said.

Recently, the Kerala government had passed the resolution against the CAA and also moved the Supreme Court against the Act which grants Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.