All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said he petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the recently notified rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Mr. Owaisi, who represents Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha, had moved the apex court earlier, but the Centre had then informed the court that the rules were yet to be framed.
Speaking to media persons at party headquarters in Darussalam, Mr. Owaisi said: “Now that the Modi government has notified and framed the rules, it was a matter of urgency to approach the Supreme Court. If this government begins to give citizenship on the basis of an unconstitutional law that is steeped in religion, it could lead to problems... An SC-monitored NRC [National Register of Citizens] happened in Assam, where 19 lakh people’s names were not there [on the list]. Out of this, around 1 lakh were Muslims, and the rest were non-Muslims. If you give citizenship under this law to those who are not Muslim, then it will be a massive injustice [towards Muslims].”
He added that the SC, in a previous judgment, had stated that it is a crime to give an allurement to change religion.
“This government says that if you are Muslim, citizenship will not be given. And if the religion is other than this, then we will give it to you. This is a type of allurement. This is why we approached the SC,” he said. Mr. Owaisi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was politicising the issue.
Touching upon his opposition to One Nation One Election (ONOE), the Hyderabad parliamentarian said it would make governments dictatorial and violate federalism.
