BJP government thinks like Jinnah, says Shashi Tharoor on Citizen (Amendment) Bill

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday slammed the BJP-led central government for introducing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha and said that this government thinks like Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who is credited for the creation of Pakistan.

"Jinnah's idea of Pakistan prevailed in the creation of Pakistan and our (Congress) idea of India prevailed in our constitution, which gives everybody equal right. But the problem is, this government thinks like Jinnah. They think Pakistan is a country for Muslims and we should be a country for Hindus," Tharoor told ANI here.

The Congress leader said that it leads to a mentality which is deeply damaging to the spirit of India and isolates Muslims.

"The partition happened because of the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, wanted a separate country on the basis of religion. Whereas the Congress party and Mahatma Gandhi said we are fighting for everyone's freedom and that we will create a country that gives everybody equal rights," Tharoor said.

"There are a lot of flaws and holes in the bill. Even if they can get the numbers because they have the MPs in Parliament to pass this, it is very clear that no honest and objective judge is going to find it easy to uphold these provisions because there seem to be so much at variance with everything that the Indian Republic stands for," he added.

Tharoor said that the bill violates the basic spirit of the Constitution of India.

"We are concerned about the violations of the basic structure of the Constitution. The very principle of India is that it is a country for all people of all religion. That has been violated by specifying only certain religion of people who will be eligible for citizenship," he said.

He said that this is also a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution which says that all persons in India shall be entitled to equal treatment.

"The Parliament cannot deny them equal treatment. The Parliament does not have the legislative competence to bring in a bill which is so violative of the basic principles on which our Republic is founded," Tharoor added.