Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Congress Wednesday staged a demonstration here to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, saying the controversial bill is “divisive, discriminatory and against the spirit of the Constitution”.
The demonstration was led by the party’s senior vice president and former minister Raman Bhalla outside the party headquarters at Shaheedi Chowk in the heart of the city and ended peacefully, officials said.
Top leaders of the party, including vice presidents GM Saroori and Mulla Ram and chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, too joined the party workers and raised slogans, demanding immediate withdrawal of the Bill.
“The Congress is on the road to defeat the divisive and discriminatory bill which is an attack on the Constitution of the country,” Bhalla told reporters amid the anti-BJP slogans raised by participants.
Sharma said the bill is against the “basic spirit of the Constitution and the idea of India”.
“We are registering our protest because we believe that it will weaken our country and the slogan of ‘Unity in Diversity’,” the Congress chief spokesperson said.
The protesters also chanted slogans against Home Minister Amit Shah for his assertion that the Congress had divided India on religious lines during the partition of the country before Independence in 1947.
“It was not the Congress but the Hindutva ideologue and Sangh icon VD Savarkar and Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah behind the partition,” said Sharma, accusing the BJP of pursuing “divisive and discriminatory” politics.
PTI