Bid to raise CAA, NPR, NRC issues being scuttled in Parliament — Cong

New Delhi, Feb. 3 (PTI): The Congress hit out at the government over the CAA, NPR and NRC on Monday, alleging that the issues were not being allowed to be debated in Parliament and its efforts in this regard were being scuttled in an “undemocratic” manner.

Senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma also trained his guns on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for making statements, which he alleged were inciting people to indulge in violence, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise for it.

“Ministers have made statements which are provocative, incendiary and abusive. Yesterday in Delhi, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh made statements which are unacceptable…talking of shooting people, about sending people to parlok (getting people killed),” he said and demanded an apology from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the prime minister for it.

Sharma said never before did chief ministers make such remarks in the history of the country.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said almost all the opposition parties, including the DMK, CPI, CPI, NCP, RJD, TMC, SP and BSP, gave notices under Rule 267 to adjourn all business and discuss the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

“For the last two months, the whole country is on the road since the citizenship bill became an act. The NPR was done earlier, but the questions were simple. But in this NPR under this government, other details such as the date of birth of the father have been asked for,” he said.

“The government represents it as a Hindu-Muslim issue. All of us feel that there is no Hindu-Muslim issue,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister added.

The government was doing all this to deliberately divert the attention from its failure to deliver on its promises, he said, adding, “They keep us giving toys to keep us busy.”

“If there is no discussion in Parliament over what is happening in the country for the last seven weeks, where would it be held then?,” Sharma asked.

“We were not allowed to raise the issues that we wanted to raise,” he said.

The Congress leader alleged that violence was being orchestrated by the government, which was being “both arrogant and insensitive”.

“Now this (Parliament) is the highest forum for discussion and debate and the Opposition is not allowed to even mention what the notices have been submitted so that the country does not get to know what the Opposition has asked for,” he said.

Asked about the Chair disallowing the adjournment notices, Sharma said, “With due respect, the Chair cannot tell the Opposition how to speak and when to speak. When a notice has been given under the rules, it is our right. We know under what rule which matter should be raised.”

He said everything could not be put in one box of “Motion of Thanks”, which was government sponsored, and doing so was “deeply disturbing”.

On the BJP’s charge that the Congress was supporting anti-CAA protests, Sharma said, “I am hearing it for the first time. The Congress party has a long history of democratic protests, struggle and serving the country. We surely do not need any patronising sermons, wherever they are coming from, nor do we need any certification of our credentials as a national, inclusive, democratic party, which believes in India, which is liberal, secular, tolerant and which upholds India’s Constitution.”