Hiding mountain of truth with bushes of lies: Naqvi on anti-CAA protesters

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said that those opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens were trying to hide a "mountain of truth with bushes of lies".

Addressing a press conference here as part of the BJP's awareness campaign over the contentious CAA and NRC, he also said that Muslims were not living in India out of "compulsion" but due to their "commitment to nationalism".

"Some people with narrow political interests are spreading disinformation among a particular section of society on the CAA, NRC and National Population Register and trying to hide a mountain of truth with bushes of lies," he said.

There is no threat to the citizenship of any Indian Muslim from the CAA, NRC or any other law, he said.

"The Narendra Modi government is working towards development without discrimination," the Union minister for minority affairs said.

Prime minister Modi has made it clear that CAA was brought in to give citizenship (to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) and not take it away from existing citizens, Naqvi said.

The NRC conducted in Assam was limited to that state, and the exercise would not pose any threat to Indian Muslims, he said.

Muslims from other countries could obtain citizenship under the Citizenship Act even before the amendment, he said.

While Pakistan is "hell for minorities, India is heaven", he said, adding that this reality was unacceptable to "divisive forces out to weaken the country".

Asked about a police official in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh reportedly asking anti-CAA protesters to "go to Pakistan", Naqvi said action should be taken against the official if it was found to be true.

On a question on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat calling all 130 crore Indians as "Hindus", the minister said, "when two lakh (Indian) people go for Haj, they are called Hindi".