CAA Fulfils Wish Of Gandhiji, President Tells Parliament

He lauds both Houses for enacting it

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday kick-started the Budget session of Parliament with an address to both Houses. He lauded the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that, he said, fulfilled the wish of Mahatma Gandhi who had said that Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan, who didn’t want to stay there, could come to India.

In an hour-long address, he spoke at length on the importance of the Constitution, adding that “in a democracy, nothing is more sacred than the mandate of the people. The people of the country have given this mandate to my government for the making of New India”.

He said India had always believed in the principle of equal respect for all faiths, but at the time of Partition in 1947, “this very belief of India and of its people came under the most severe attack”.