Viksit Bharat event: Hardeep Singh Puri cites own case to puncture propaganda on CAA

Kolkata, March 13 (IANS) Hardeep Singh Puri, the Minister of State (Independent charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs on Wednesday cited his own example to counter the propaganda on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), fanned by rival parties to create 'confusion and suspicion' over the 2019 law.

Speaking at the Viksit Bharat Ambassadors event in Kolkata, the Minister reiterated that the law was only to benefit the oppressed and persecuted minorities of neighbouring nations, and it had nothing to do with the local population.

Reminiscing about his past, the Minister said: "I am the son of refugees. My father and mother came here from Pakistan by train, decades ago."

He justified the move to grant citizenship under CAA as the law, enacted in 2019, was about giving a right to dignified life to persecuted minorities from neighbourhood and does not seek to hurt any other, as propagated by the rival parties.

"Granting citizenship to victimised populations from neighbouring nations goes with India's standing in the world as it is a nation that remains sensitive to humanitarian principles," he said.

Further urging the audience to become Viksit Bharat Ambassadors, he informed them that 'Good governance is good politics', remains the motto of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

"For PM Modi, there are only four castes -- poor, youth, women and farmers, and hence, the governance is centered only around their welfare," he added.

Later, during a post-speech questionnaire session, the Minister blasted the Mamata Banerjee dispensation in West Bengal for shielding the perpetrators of Sandeshkhali and also accused it of letting the oppressors and goons run loose in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state.

Elaborating on the importance of Viksit Bharat programme, he opined that the Sankalp Yatras reaching small towns, villages and remote locations is a unique initiative of the government, and this will spur the citizens to become part of the mass movement that the mission seeks to achieve.