Bengaluru: Day after Union home minister Amit Shah tabled the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that was passed in the Lok Sabha, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar requested the Centre to provide citizenship to Tamilians from Sri Lanka.

Taking to Twitter, the spiritual leader said, "I request the Government of India to consider giving citizenship to more than 1 lakh Tamil Sri Lankans who are living in this country as refugees for the last 35 years."

 

On Monday (December 9) night, the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019, which had been tabled in the Lower House for discussion earlier in the day.

Replying to the debate on the Bill in the Lower House, home minister Amit Shah said, "Hindu population was 84% in 1991. In 2011, it was 79%." The debate lasted for 7 hours. "In 1991, the Muslim population was 9.8%. It is 14.23% today. There is no discrimination based on religion. In the future as well, there will be no discrimination based on religion," he added.

The Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

Through this Bill, Indian citizenship will be provided to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from the three countries to India till December 31, 2014, to put an end to them being treated as illegal immigrants in the country.