Nehru, Manmohan favoured minorities from Pak, B'desh: BJP chief

Addressing his first rally in Agra after assuming the role of BJP chief, JP Nadda on Thursday said that many Congress leaders including Nehru, Manmohan were in favour of helping religiously persecuted minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The BJP president also slammed the Congress, accusing them of "having no knowledge about the CAA" and "spreading rumours" about the Act.

Agra: Defending the amended Citizenship Act, BJP president JP Nadda on Thursday said that many former prime ministers from the Congress including Jawaharlal Nehru and Manmohan Singh were supporting the minority refugees, who came from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"Nehruji has said that help should be given to the minorities on whom atrocities are committed in Pakistan ... Manmohan Singhji, in 2003, had said that atrocities are being committed on Hindus in Bangladesh, and he added that the responsibility of settling them in India should be ours," Nadda said at his first rally after being elected unopposed to the post of BJP national president.

Further attacking the leaders, especially from 'Dalit' community who have opposed CAA, Nadda said: "Today many big Dalit leaders are opposing CAA. They do not know that 70 per cent of them (refugees) who have come to India are Dalits. They have been given the right to live in India. They have been given citizenship."

The BJP president also slammed the Congress, accusing them of "having no knowledge about the CAA" and "spreading rumours" about the Act.

"Their (Congress and other opposition parties) politics is over. They have realised that the country is now changed and is moving forward at a fast pace under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership," said Nadda.

The CAA grants Indian citizenship to Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.