BJP president J P Nadda on Thursday said by bringing in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act Narendra Modi had implemented what Mahatma Gandhi and the previous prime ministers merely talked about.
Addressing a rally in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan, Nadda called Modi a “world leader”, citing also the praise he got from US President Donald Trump during his recent India visit.
Nadda claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh talked about bringing minorities persecuted in the neighbouring countries to India.
“They merely said so but Modi did so,” he said.
The population of minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan has reduced drastically, he said, claiming that many of their members have converted.
The new law fast-tracks Indian citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis who left these countries before 2015 due to religious persecution.
Nadda accused opposition parties of misleading people on the amended citizenship law.
Beginning a two-day trip to Himachal Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader claimed that Donald Trump praised India and Modi for 20 minutes out of his 28-minute speech at the Motera cricket stadium in Gujarat.
Nadda described Modi as a “world leader”.
He said the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 will strengthen the region.
“India has become one country constitutionally under Modi's leadership,” he said.
He referred to the last block development council elections, saying they were held without a single drop of blood being shed.
The BJP president said a delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir would now enable reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha for the Gujjar-Bakarwal community.
Accusing other political parties of “parivarvad”, he said, “No one can stop the BJP from growing further as it is the only party which is based on ideology. This is the only party which keeps on introspecting.”
“We know who will be next president of the Congress, NCP, SP, BSP, Telugu Desam and YSR Congress. But the BJP is the only party where nobody knows who will be the next chief,” he said.
“Nobody from my family was in politics but I am the BJP president now,” he said.
