The bill aims to provide citizenship to those who had been forced to seek shelter in India because of religious persecution or fear of persecution in their home countries — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“The two-nation theory was proposed by Jinnah (Mohammad Ali Jinnah). Why did the Congress accept it? Why didn’t you (the Congress) stop it?” Shah said, replying to the Congress’s assertion that the two-nation theory was not proposed by the party but by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a Sangh parivar icon, and Jinnah.
“Gandhiji said the partition of India will be done over my dead body but Congress accepted Partition on the basis of religion. It’s a fact and it can’t be denied,” Shah added amid loud protests by the Opposition.
