'States passing anti-CAA resolutions misleading people'

States passing resolutions against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) are misleading people, as citizenship falls under the Centre's purview, BJP working president J P Nadda said here on Thursday.

The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution against the CAA, demanding scrapping of the controversial Act which grants citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who arrived in India before 2015.

"Some states are passing resolutions against the CAA. Citizenship is a subject under the Central government, and the law has been passed by the Centre and bears the signature of President," Nadda said.

"It has been implemented, and beneficiaries will get citizenship, you (state governments opposing the CAA) should stop misleading people," he added, speaking at `CAA Janjagaran Sammelan' organized by the BJP here.

"You can tell facts to the Congress, but it is not in a position to understand the truth. We can explain only if they understand, but if they do not want to understand despite being intelligent, then we cannot do anything," he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did not know anything about the CAA, he said.

"I would like to ask the Congress why its leaders did not condemn the violence during (anti-CAA) protests that caused damage to public properties. They are all hand in glove," the BJP working president said.

Eighty per cent of beneficiaries under the Act would be Dalits, Nadda claimed.

"Congress sheds crocodile tear for Dalits...It only used them for political ends....80 per cent of those being provided citizenship under the Act are Dalits," he said.

Communities such as Matua, Rajvanshi and Namo Sudra migrated to India from the three neighbouring countries and they would be the biggest beneficiaries of the CAA, he said.

Nadda also said, citing reports in the Washington Post and New York Times, that there were 5,50,000 Sikh families in Afghanistan at one time but now only 2,000 families are left.

"A momentary mistake of Partition made generations suffer," he said.

While the population of Muslims in India rose to 14 per cent from 9 per cent (at the time of Independence), in Pakistan, Hindu population declined from 23 per cent to 3 per cent, he claimed.

"These are the people who came to India to save their lives, respect and culture," he added.

"Mahatma Gandhi said in 1947 that arrangements should be made for them if they cannot stay there, they should be brought to India and given citizenship," Nadda claimed.

Even former prime minister Manmohan Singh had said that people were facing persecution because of their religion in Bangladesh, the BJP leader said.