Odisha Feels Like Second Home, Says Amit Shah & Blames Oppn For Communal Riots In Delhi

Bhubaneswar:  Under severe attack for the violence in northeast Delhi and loss of 38 lives, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday turned the tables on the opposition, accusing them of spreading misinformation about the new citizenship law and inciting communal riots.

Addressing a massive Jan Samavesh organised by the BJP here on Friday, he said people should ask those fomenting unrest to explain which clause of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act talks about snatching the rights of the people.

“BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party), SP (Sawajwadi Party), Communist, Congress and Mamata Didi are against the CAA because they say minorities will lose their citizenship. They are spreading such misinformation only for political gains,” he said, stressing that no Indian Muslim will lose citizenship because of the new law.

“CAA is not about taking away citizenship, but about granting citizenship,” he added.

The Union Home Minister said several issues that had festered for 70 years, including abrogation of Article 370 which prevented integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India, were taken up after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister.

“It is due to abrogation of Article 370 that Kashmir is now an integral part of India. The Congress kept dillydallying. the Ram Mandir issue. But PM Modi recently constituted a Trust which has opened doors for the construction of the temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram,” Shah said.

Playing to the gallery, he said Odisha felt like second home.

Earlier in the day, he chaired the Eastern Zonal Council (ECZ) meeting which was attended by the Chief Ministers of Odisha (Naveen Patnaik), West Bengal (Mamata Banerjee) and Bihar (Nitish Kumar).  Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren did not attend the meeting and the state was represented by its finance minister.