Public reaction to CAA 'expected', anger will grow if govt doesn't realise mistake: Amarinder Singh

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said the people's reaction to the "draconian" citizenship law was "expected" and the anger would only increase if the Centre does not withdraw it.

"The public reaction to the CAA had to be expected since the BJP government at the Centre was trying to destroy India's cherished constitutional and social fabric through this draconian legislation," Singh said when queried over the violence in Delhi and other parts of the country.

Fresh violence tore through northeast Delhi, killing six more people on Tuesday and taking the toll in the communal clashes over the amended citizenship law to 11.

Singh said the central government "failed to factor in the possible reaction of the people in its plans to impose the CAA, as well as the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and NPR (National Population Register), on the nation".

"Naturally, there had to be a reaction to the Centre's attempt to trample over the country's democratic ideals of socialism and secularism", he told reporters outside the Punjab Assembly here.

He added that the people's anger would not end but only grow bigger till the central government realised its "mistake" and withdrew the legislation.

Asked about the Centre's decision not to invite Congress president Sonia Gandhi to the banquet hosted for the visiting US President, Singh described it as "unfortunate" and said such a thing had never happened under Congress governments.

Replying to another question, he said the Delhi Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) should have been invited for the US First Lady's visit to the city schools.

Singh said though he was not a supporter of the policies of the Aam Aadmi Party, it was customary for the chief minister to be invited when a VIP, such as US President Donald Trump, was on a visit and his wife was going to a school of that state, he said.