Yogi: CAA will provide justice to persecuted Hindus of Pak

GAYA: UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday held an awareness rally in Gaya on the recently enacted Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Addressing the public meeting at Gandhi Maidan, he said Indian Muslims enjoy equal citizenship rights, but minorities in Pakistan were ill-treated.
“While the population of Indian Muslims increased by more than five times since Independence, the Hindu population of (undivided) Pakistan came down from 20% to less than 4% in the same period,” Yogi said.
Attributed the decline of minority population in Pakistan to “mass killings, forced exodus and coercive conversion”, he added: “The CAA will provide justice to such Hindus who were compelled to leave their homeland on account of religious persecution and oppression.”
The UP CM, who arrived at the venue to slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Hindu Hriday Samrat’, in his 28-minute speech, praised the “tolerance” of Indians. “Even Sonia Gandhi, a Christian by faith, was welcomed in India, something that was possible only in our country.”
Echoing the assertions of PM Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah on CAA, Yogi reiterated the “innocuous” nature of the Act and said it was about giving and not snatching citizenship rights.
“Those who are calling the CAA unconstitutional are, in fact, heaping insult on Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution,” said Yogi. He also questioned Congress’s moral right to talk about constitutionality as the party, during emergency, ran amok with all constitutional values.
However, while Yogi was nearing the end of his speech, hundreds of black balloons dotted the Gandhi Maidan skyline, purportedly released by anti-CAA protesters in Gaya. Both Yogi and the organisers ignored the black balloons and Yogi soon ended his speech.
Other dignitaries present at the rally included Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and state BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal.