Landmark day for India, says PM Narendra Modi after Rajya Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019

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New Delhi: Minutes after the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019 was passed in Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to microblogging site Twitter and lauded the government's effort on the bill calling it as a landmark day for India. PM Modi expressed his gratitude towards the Members of Parliament who voted in the favour of the bill in Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday. 

Narendra Modi tweet read, ''A landmark day for India and our nation’s ethos of compassion and brotherhood! Glad that the CAB 2019 has been passed in the RajyaSabha. Gratitude to all the MPs who voted in favour of the Bill. This Bill will alleviate the suffering of many who faced persecution for years.''

A landmark day for India and our nation’s ethos of compassion and brotherhood!

Glad that the #CAB2019 has been passed in the #RajyaSabha. Gratitude to all the MPs who voted in favour of the Bill.

This Bill will alleviate the suffering of many who faced persecution for years. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 11, 2019

 The Citizenship Amendment Bill will provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Union Cabinet gave its nod to the bill on December 4, 2019.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also expressed his happiness over the passing of Bill and said, ''As the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 passes in the Parliament, the dreams of crores of deprived & victimised people has come true today.'' He further expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that because of his decision the problems of safety and dignity of all the affected peopel will now get resolved.

In his concluding statement in Rajya Sabha Home Minister Amit Shah said, ''I assure this bill will bring no loss to the minorities of India because it gives citizenship and does not takes away any. We are helping persecuted minorities. There is no persecution of Muslims in the Islamic nation.'' He added, ''This Bill is not going to hurt anyone's sentiments or make people of any community upset. The people who are worried that minorities of this country will be subjected to injustice, it will not happen.''

Several other BJP leaders including IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also congratulated the government and said that the Bill is of great humanitarian value.  

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) will turn into Act after it gets the nod of President Ram Nath Kovind. The Bill was passed in Rajya Sabha after six hours of intense debate and protest by the opposition party. It received 125 votes in favour and 99 against it in the upper house. Earlier, on December 10 the bill was passed in Lok Sabha receiving 311 votes in favour and 80 against it.