Opposition members protest as Prez mentions CAA in address

Opposition members raised slogans when President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday hailed the amended citizenship act in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament.

While many members came wearing black bands and carrying banners to the House with 'No CAA', 'No NPR' and 'No NRC' written on them, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, did not sit at their designated seats in the front row as a mark of protest.

Instead, they took seats in the fifth row along with party MPs Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Benny Behnan and Rahul Gandhi.

Several Congress MPs, including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Gaurav Gogoi, were seen sporting black bands as a mark of protest.

When Kovind read out excerpts related to abrogating special provisions of Article 370 that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status, many members broke into applause.

However, the longest applause was when he read out excerpts on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The ruling party members continued to thump the desk for nearly half-a minute.

At this point some opposition members raised "shame, shame" slogans.

Towards the end of the address, members of the Trinamool Congress raised banners of 'No CAA', 'No NPR' and 'No NRC'.

This continued for nearly five minutes. TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien also took a selfie with members raising slogans.