No ifs or buts, Cong to oppose CAB in Parliament: Jairam Ramesh

Guwahati: Refusing to join the ongoing attempt to create consensus on the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Northeast, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh said that the Congress will “cent per cent” oppose the bill, with no ifs and buts.

Asserting that the Modi government was putting its entire thrust on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and CAB only, Mr Ramesh said that it is a diversionary tactic of the BJP to cover up the alarming decline in country’s GDP growth for the last two years.

“The lowest GDP growth rate in seven years was recorded in the last three months. The PM claims that the country’s economy is alright. But, the country is facing a deep economic crisis. This is what the government data says. Unemployment is on the up, growth rate is declining, farmers are suffering, small traders and industries are under a fearful environment. The economic crisis is real and deep,” Mr Ramesh said.

Coming down heavily on the ruling BJP-led government for allegedly trying the divert attention of the people from the economic slowdown by politicising the citizenship issue, he said that the Congress would play a key role in mobalising the like-minded forces to oppose the CAB in Parliament.

Pointing towards BJP’s Assam ally AGP, which is in a dilemma on whether to come out openly against the bill, he said that BJP allies should take a lesson from the Sena, which deci-ded to walk away from the coalition with the party.

The senior Congress leader argued that a controversial matter like the CAB should have gone to a standing committee for deliberation.

“We have seen what happened in Maharashtra. Hope other allies of the BJP will realise soon that they will be finished if their alliance with BJP continues. Shiv Sena has realised this now. Naveen Patnaik had realized it earlier,” Mr Ramesh said.

Mr Ramesh clarified that Congress will never accept the citizenship bill, which he said violates the secular ethos of the Constitution. “In Maharashtra and Haryana, they (the BJP) made NRC an issue, but, the results have gone against them. In West Bengal too, the recent poll results tell the story. NRC and CAB are weapons in the hands of the BJP to dismantle society. It’s a diversionary tactic. This is a tactic to deviate people from the ongoing economic crisis,” he said.