Citizenship (Amendment) Bill half-hearted: Dayanidhi Maran

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Dayanidhi Maran on Monday opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha and called it "half-hearted" as it only includes neighbouring countries of North India. He also urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to reconsider it.

"Your Bill is half-hearted. It does not constitute for the entire states of India... You are not the Home Minister only for the Northern part of India, you are the Home Minister for the entire country of India," Maran said.

He added, "Probably the fear of the West, the fear of being isolated by West has crept into you and you had to include Christians in this bill. Also what about if Muslims from PoK want to come? What law do you have for that?"

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

Through this Bill, Indian citizenship will be provided to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from the three countries to India till December 31, 2014, to put an end to them being treated as illegal immigrants in the country.