Passage of Citizenship Bill: India's tryst with bigotry, says Priyanka Gandhi

In a sharp attack on the government, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday said "India's tryst with bigotry and narrow minded exclusion" was confirmed as the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha at midnight yesterday.

The Congress general secretary's remarks came after the CAB was passed in the Lok Sabha with 311 members favouring it and 80 voting against it. The bill will now be tabled in the Rajya Sabha for its nod on Wednesday.

'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," she said in a tweet, recalling her great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru's speech on the midnight of August 14-15, 1947, when India rang in its Independence.

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom," Nehru had said in the opening lines of a speech believed to be among the greatest in the 20th century.