'Why Are There Protests in Northeast if Country is Happy With CAB?': Ghulam Nabi Azad's Counter in RS

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad highlighted the tense situation in the North East while speaking against the Citizenship Amendment Bill during the debate in Parliament on Wednesday.

‘If the entire country is happy because of the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, then why is the army carrying out flag marches in Dibrugarh?” he asked.

As protests against the Bill intensified in Assam, the state government announced that mobile internet will be blocked in 10 districts for a period of 24 hours, beginning 7 pm on Wednesday.

A curfew has also been imposed in Guwahati from 6.15 pm on Wednesday to 7 am the next day. The move follows a 48-hour internet ban in Tripura from 2 pm on Tuesday to prevent mischief mongers from spreading rumours.

“Why are protestors out on the national highway for the last 11 hours? In Guhawati why are buses being burnt? If you say that everyone is happy with the introduction of CAB?” Azad asked.

Claiming that lakhs and crores of minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have faced religious persecution, Azad took a jibe at Home Minister Amit Shah by saying that the government does not have any authentic data on such people and was fooling the public.

He asked that if the Home Ministry had received only a little over 4000 citizenship application from people belonging to the neighbouring countries, then who are the “crores of people who the Home Minister is talking of saving from religious persecution?”.

Azad alleged that the government had introduced the CAB in order to deviate people’s attention from the worsening economic situation and growing unemployment in the country.

“Every four to six months the government introduces things like demonetisation to basically deviate the attention from problems like unemployment and economic freefall,” Azad said.

He raised the objections about the CAB being focused on “selective countries and selective religions.” He said if Christians of Bhutan or Hindus of Tamil Nadu are persecuted for their religions, what safe passage does the CAB give them?