"Dirty Politics Of Vote Bank, BJP Will Extend Deadline To 2024 And So On": Arvind Kejriwal On CAA Notification

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held a press conference earlier today (13 March) on the recently notified Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and targeted the BJP-led Central government.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener said, "If they (BJP) would have done good work, then they would not need bringing CAA just before elections."

Kejriwal claimed that minorities from the three neighbouring countries will be brought to India in "large numbers" and they will be given employment and houses.

Claiming that inflation and unemployment are the biggest issues today, Kejriwal said that BJP is unable to give employment to "our children" but wants to give employment to Pakistani children.

The AAP chief claimed that the money that ought to be spent on India's development will be used on the rehabilitation of Pakistanis and speculated a "huge influx" of people coming to India "as doors get opened."

This claim comes despite 31 December 2014 being the deadline for coming to India to get Indian citizenship under CAA. The persecuted minority groups eligible are Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians.

Kejriwal claimed that this 2014 deadline is just the starting and once this sequence starts, "large number" of people will come from Pakistan and Bangladesh and then the BJP will extend this deadline to 2024 and so on.

Kejriwal estimated this number to be 2.5-3 crore and said that even if 1.5-2 crore of them come to India, it will be a difficult situation. He blamed the BJP's "dirty politics of vote bank" for bringing CAA.

"Wherever BJP votes are less, if these people are settled in slums there, then BJP will have a vote bank. In the future, the BJP will electorally gain a lot from this," Kejriwal said citing "some people."

The Delhi CM said that the BJP is going against the global trend as no country lets poor people from its neighbourhood enter its boundaries and instead secures its fences.

He also targeted Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for "betraying" people as he did not oppose CAA which is destroying Assamese culture and language.

Kejriwal demanded CAA withdrawal and concluded his speech by requesting people to vote against the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections if it fails to withdraw the CAA.