Addressing a Congress-led Opposition parties meet on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), Congress President Sonia Gandhi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had misled people on these issues, and that they have contradicted their own statements. 

"The Government has let loose reign of oppression, it is spreading hatred and trying to divide people along sectarian lines," Sonia Gandhi said. The nation watched in horror at BJP-orchestrated assault on JNU after what happened in Jamia, BHU, Allahabad University and AMU, she added.

The Modi-Shah government stands totally exposed for its inability to govern and to provide security to people, she said. PM, Home Minister want to divert nation’s attention from economic slowdown by raising one divisive issue after another, the COngress chief alleged.

 

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, JMM leader and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, LJD chief Sharad Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party leader Upendra Kushwaha, RJD leader Manoj Jha, National Conference leader Hasnain Masoodi, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attended the meeting.

Significantly, the BSP, the AAP and the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC stayed away from the meeting attended by representatives of 20 parties in all.

Sources said the top opposition leaders have already held discussions among themselves and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is leading the efforts.

The Opposition is seeking to win over the youth and the students by supporting their protests against the amended citizenship law and any NRC. The sources said the Congress and other parties are seeking to take the students’ movement forward and have lent support to their cause.

Last week, Sonia Gandhi had termed the CAA as a “discriminatory and divisive” law whose “sinister” purpose was to divide people on religious lines, and asserted that the NPR (National Population Register) in form and content was “disguised NRC (National Register of Citizens)".

The joint opposition move also assumes significance as it comes soon after the Delhi Assembly election dates have been announced. Elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 8 and results will be declared on February 11. The last time a majority of the opposition leaders had come together was at the swearing-in of Hemant Soren as Jharkhand's Chief Minister.

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