New Delhi: Facing a stiff opposition from the students and political opponents over the Citizenship law, the BJP on Thursday released a video footage of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh pushing for such a legislation in 2003 during the stint of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"In 2003, speaking in Rajya Sabha, Dr Manmohan Singh, then Leader of Opposition, asked for a liberal approach to granting citizenship to minorities, who are facing persecution, in neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan. Citizenship Amendment Act does just that...," said a missive in the micro blogging site from the BJP's Twitter handle.
The Bill was an election promise of the BJP in the 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but the draft law which was approved by the previous Lok Sabha had lapsed after the dissolution of the Lower House of Parliament.
On December 5 in a tweet, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya had said that Dr Singh during a debate in the Rajya Sabha had said that - ".....our approach to granting citizenship to these unfortunate persons should be more liberal".
"I sincerely hope that Honourable Deputy Prime Minister (L K Advani) will bear this in mind in charting out the future course of action with regard to the Citizenship Act".
The then Deputy Chairperson of the House of Elders had said, "Mr Advani, the minorities in Pakistan are also suffering. They have to be taken care of too".
The video footage shows Dr Manmohan Singh speaking in favour of such a legislation while L K Advani, then Deputy PM giving a patient hearing and taking notes in the presence of his party colleague Pramod Mahajan.
Interestingly, the video shows Dr Najma Heptullah, who was on the chair, stating "minorities in Pakistan are also suffering.....".Dr Heptullah is now Governor of Manipur.(UNI)
