PM refers to 1st Assam CM Bordoloi while defending CAA

Mounting a strong defence of the Citizenship Amendment Act, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday referred to Jawaharlal Nehru's letter to Assam's first Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi asking him to distinguish between Hindu refugees and Muslim migrants from Pakistan.

Replying to a debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in Lok Sabha, Modi saidNehru in a letter to Bordoloi, the then Assam Chief Minister, in 1950 had asked him to distinguish between Hindu refugees and Muslim migrants from Pakistan and said the law should be amended to grant citizenship to the refugees if required.

"This was not only Mahatma Gandhi's but also Nehru's sentiments. Was Pandit Nehru communal? Did he discriminate between Hindus and Muslims? Did he want Hindu Rashtra?" Modi asked, asserting that several reports, including those of parliamentary panels, had recommended a law like the CAA.

Modi said the Congress is having problems when his government is taking decisions to fulfil wishes of the country's "founding fathers".

Assam and several other states have been witnessing protests against the CAA.

Opposition parties are against the new law.

Bordoloi, who was credited with saving Assam from merging with Pakistan during the Partition, was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1999 posthumously.

Bordoloi's bold and competent leadership was instrumental in saving Assam from merging with Pakistan under the Cabinet Mission's plan, a concept created by the British in collaboration with the Muslim League.

Bangladesh was created in 1971 and before that the territory was part of Pakistan.