As the Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Twitter users came out in support or opposition to the proposed law.
The Bill, which amends the Citizenship Act, 1955, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
#CitizenshipAmendmentBill trended on Twitter with 2,355 tweets.
Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal wrote on her Twitter handle @HarsimratBadal_: Thanks to PM @narendramodi ji these refugee Sikhs will now have access to all rights due to a citizen of India."
One user remarked: "If the government really wants to help persecuted minorities of neighbouring countries, then why have 62,000 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, living in camps in TN, been left out of the Bill? They are mostly Hindus and Christians?"
One post read: "Kudos to the Union Cabinet led by PM Modi ji for clearing the Bill. It will help in pushing out millions of infiltrators from our nation."
Another user was clearly not amused. "We already have exploding population. Why do we need a bill to increase it? And definitely not on the grounds of religion. Humble request is to not misuse the majority we have given you."