Laws once enacted can't be opposed on streets: Goa Cong leader

Goa Congress leader and former MP John Fernandes has lambasted his own party for opposing the amended citizenship act, saying laws passed by Parliament should not be challenged on the streets.

Fernandes, a former Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president, on Thursday termed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) as a "good" law which should be accepted by people.

The passage of CAA in Parliament last month triggered protests across the country, including in Goa.

The Congress and other opposition parties have criticised the new law that grants citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014 to escape religious persecution in their home country.

Fernandes was addressing a gathering here where crucial issues like CAA and scrapping of Article 370, that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, were discussed.

The former GPCC chief, who held reigns of the party in Goa in 2013, said, When a law is passed by Parliament, no one should be instigated by the opposition to say anything against it on the streets."
"CAA is to be accepted by the people of this country because these are good laws."