BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain allays misgivings about CAA

Kishanganj (Bihar), Mar 12 (PTI) Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Tuesday urged people not to be “swayed by rumours” surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Talking to reporters a day after the Act was notified, Hussain said it is meant only to grant citizenship to those people of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan who had “fled these countries because of religious persecution”.

Asked about the CAA, Hussain said, “Nobody is going to lose his or her citizenship because of this Act. Only those who have fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan because of religious persecution, will get citizenship of India”.

“People should not be swayed by rumours about CAA. This is not a measure aimed at voters’ polarization along religious lines”, added Hussain.

Hussain was in Kishanganj, a district in the northeastern part of Bihar where Muslims are in a majority, for flagging off the Patna-New Jalpaiguri Vande Bharat Express which has a stopover at the local station.

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi who flagged off altogether 10 Vande Bharat trains through video conference from Ahmedabad, “for this gift to the people of Kishanganj on the first day of Ramadan”.

Hussain who had made his Lok Sabha debut from Kishanganj in 1999 becoming the only BJP candidate to win from the Muslim-dominated seat, dismissed speculations about the party fielding him again in the upcoming elections.

“Many people happen to be in the reckoning but who knows who will get the ticket,” said the BJP leader.

He, however, made it clear that speculations about his contesting from Kishanganj were “not true”, in an apparent bid to clear the air about the seat which BJP has conceded to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) whenever the two parties have fought elections together.

Hussain, who lost his cabinet berth in Bihar in the upheaval of 2022, and who has been denied another term in the Legislative Council, also ducked queries about the possibility of contesting from Bhagalpur, a seat he had won twice but is currently held by the JD(U).