Congress says BJP using CAB to polarise people

Guwahati: The Opposition Congress, which came to power in 2011 by promising citizenship to Hindu Bengalis in Assam, has decided to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which the central government is planning to re-introduce during the winter session of Parliament.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh — who was here as part of a six-member Congress team asked by president Sonia Gandhi to seek feedback from Congress leaders of eight northeastern states on issues such as NRC, CAB and the economy, said that the proposed legislation i.e. CAB, remained a threat even to the states enjoying special provisions under Article 371.

Mr Ramesh said, “If the CAB becomes legislation, the states enjoying various provisions under Article 371 in the northeast will also be affected. Amit Shah had said that Article 370 was a temporary provision, while Article 371 is not so. This is not the fact. Even Article 371 is temporary in the temporary chapter of the Constitution. There is no guarantee that the CAB will not affect these states in the region, despite Article 371.”

Mr Ramesh reiterated that the Congress will consistently oppose the CAB in parliament and outside on the “principled ground” that it is “anti-secular, against the preamble of our Constitution and in violation of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution.”