JDU leader Pavan Varma echoes Prashant Kishor's concern on CAB, urges Nitish to reconsider support to Bill

Janata Dal-United (JDU) national general secretary Pavan Varma has urged Bihar Chief Minister and party president Nitish Kumar to reconsider party's support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill [CAB], 2019, which was passed by Lok Sabha on Monday.

"I urge Nitish Kumar to reconsider support to the CAB in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill is unconstitutional, discriminatory, and against the unity and harmony of the country, apart from being against the secular principles of the JDU. Gandhiji would have strongly disapproved it," Varma tweeted on Tuesday.

Earlier, JDU leader Prashant Kishor had also echoed similar sentiments and had said that he is disappointed with his party supporting the CAB, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

"Disappointed to see JDU supporting CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion. It's incongruous with the party's constitution that carries the word secular thrice on the very first page and the leadership that is supposedly guided by Gandhian ideals," Kishor tweeted on Monday.

BJP's ally JDU was among the parties which supported the passage of CAB in the lower house of parliament.

Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship Bill with a majority of 311 votes against 80 votes in the Lower House where 391 members were present and voted.

In Rajya Sabha, the Modi government requires the support of at least 123 MPs in the 245-member House and the bill is likely to be tabled in the upper house on Wednesday.

The Bill seeks to give citizenship to refugees from the Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zorastrian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The cut-off date for citizenship bill is December 31, 2014.