No one has permission to ask for proof about one's Indianness: Priyanka Gandhi

Hitting out at the Centre over new citizenship law, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Sunday said that 'no one has the permission to ask for proof' to prove one's Indianness.'

"No one has the right to ask for evidence on anyone's Indianness," Gandhi told reporters after meeting the kin of Anas and Suleiman, who died during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Bijnor on December 20.

"I stand with the grieving families. I stand with every family with whom wrong has been done. All the poor labourers were householders. There are small children, who have no one to take care of them," she said.

The Congress general secretary sought an inquiry into the incident, asking how these deaths happened.

"Many people have died. Several are in the hospital, but nobody came to meet the kin of the deceased from the Uttar Pradesh government. Nobody listened to them. Today is the time to listen to them. Embrace and support them in this hour of grief," she said

Claiming that the law which is "absolutely not needed today" is being brought by the government, she said: "There is severe unemployment. The economy has completely collapsed."

"Instead of giving solutions to these problems, the BJP government is asking every Indian to prove that you are an Indian. This law is anti-poor. How will the people living in the city's slum provide documents before 1971," she asked.

She alleged that the language of the Uttar Pradesh's BJP government is such that "people are suffering injustice but are afraid to share it with the government as it does not want to listen to its people."

Violence has erupted in different parts of Uttar Pradesh during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and proposed NRC with the incidents of stone-pelting, arson, and vandalism that led to the death of 15 persons, said the Uttar Pradesh Police.As many as 879 people have been arrested while 5,000 were 'bound down' as a preventive measure in Uttar Pradesh, said the state's Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh."A total of 135 criminal cases have been registered against the miscreants. Fifteen people have died while 288 police personnel are injured," said the top cop.