New Delhi, Dec 10 (UNI) Terming the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill (CAB) as 'patently unconstitutional', senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidamabram on Tuesday said that battle ground will be shifted to the Supreme Court, once the bill be passed.
"CAB is unconstitutional. Parliament passes a Bill that is patently unconstitutional and the battle ground shifts to the Supreme Court", Mr Chidambaram tweeted.
He also claimed that "elected Parliamentarians are abdicating their responsibilities in favour of lawyers and judges".
In a series of tweets, the Congress leader further said that "the price we pay for giving a party a brute majority that it uses to trample over the wishes of the States and the People".
The CAB was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday after a heated debate over seven hours and strong objection from opposition parties.
The bill is likely to be taken up in Rajya Sabha for consideration and passage on Wednesday.
The CAB proposed to give citizenship for members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan by December 31, 2014.
"CAB is divisive, discriminatory and against the fundamental premises of our Constitution, above all, it's an all-out assault on the very idea of India. The BJP is doing what its ideological forefathers have always done - divide and rule", said AICC general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal with a hashtag, #CountryAgainstBJP.
Taking to the twitter, AICC communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala described the CAB as an attack on soul of India.
"CAB 2019 is an anathema to our Constitutional democracy. It’s an attack on soul of India. 72 years earlier, India was partitioned by the British, Savarakar’s and Jinnah’s sinister thought and approach.
Descendants of the philosophy seek to partition our foundational values once again", Mr Surjewala tweeted.
Earlier, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had strongly criticised the Narendra Modi government and said it is an attack on the Constitution of India.
"The CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation", Mr Gandhi tweeted.
In a series of tweets, Ms Priyanka said, "last night at midnight, India’s tryst with bigotry and narrow minded exclusion was confirmed as the CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha".
"Our forefathers gave their lifeblood for our freedom. In that freedom, is enshrined the right to equality, and the right to freedom of religion. Our Constitution, our citizenship, our dreams of a strong and unified India belong to ALL of us", the Congress general secretary added.
"We will fight against this government’s agenda to systematically destroy our Constitution and undo the fundamental premise on which our country was built with all our might", she had said.
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