BREAKING NEWS: No reason to feel defensive, back CAA strongly in Parliament: PM Narendra Modi to NDA leaders

The meeting of the NDA was called who met to strategise as Parliament's Budget Session began here on Friday

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that his government has no reason to feel defensive about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and asked the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders to back the legislation strongly in Parliament.

According to sources, the PM asked the NDA leaders to aggressively take on the Opposition's charge that the amended citizenship law discriminated against Muslims and said that minorities are as much "ours as other citizens are". The meeting of the NDA leaders was called to chalk out a strategy to counter the Opposition during the Budget Session of Parliament, which began on Friday

''The government has done nothing wrong as far as the amended Citizenship Act is concerned and has no reason to feel defensive about,'' the PM reportedly said during the meeting of the NDA allies. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders also hailed the Prime Minister for the Bodo Accord and settlement of Bru tribe members in Tripura.

It may be noted that the Opposition leaders have said they will raise the issue of nationwide protests against the CAA in the session, as they accused the Modi government of arrogance and making no effort to reach out to protestors. 

Congress party has been hitting out at the Central government, saying that it is least bothered about the people protesting on streets against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC.

"The government is least bothered about the people protesting on streets over CAA-NRC. This shows their arrogance. They are not bothered about farmers too. The opposition wants that these issues be discussed too and the govt should be sensitive about it," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said after an all-party meeting ahead of the budget session on Thursday.

The Congress leader alleged that the government is only focussed on getting Bills passed.

Azad's party colleague Anand Sharma on Friday slammed the government for creating fault lines in the country through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and accused the government of lacking compassion for the demonstrators. 

"This legislation (CAA) has created fault lines in the country and there is tension. The government is arrogant and the government is also lacking compassion for those protesting against the law, said Sharma after the Joint Session of Parliament at the beginning of Budget Session.

However, in his address to the joint sitting of the Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday said that the Centre`s decision to enact Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a move to fulfil the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi and that its step to scrap Article 370 and 35A from Kashmir was "historic". 

(With Agency inputs)