JP Nadda said 70 per cent of them (refugees) who have come to India are Dalits (File)
Defending the amended Citizenship Act, BJP president JP Nadda on Thursday said that many former Prime Ministers from the Congress, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Manmohan Singh, supported giving asylum to minority refugees who came from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
"Nehruji had said help should be given to minorities on whom atrocities are committed in Pakistan ... Manmohan Singh ji, in 2003, had said that atrocities are being committed on Hindus in Bangladesh, and he added that the responsibility of settling them in India should be ours," Mr Nadda said a rally in Uttar Pradesh.
"Today many big Dalit leaders are opposing CAA. They do not know that 70 per cent of them (refugees) who have come to India are Dalits. They have been given the right to live in India. They have been given the citizenship," he added.
The BJP president also slammed the Congress, accusing them of "having no knowledge about the CAA" and "spreading rumours" about the Act.
"Their (Congress and other opposition parties) politics is over. They have realised that the country is now changed and is moving forward at a fast pace under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership," said Mr Nadda.