Chennai: Tamil film superstar and aspiring politician Rajinikanth on Wednesday came out in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act, proposed National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.
The actor, who is seen as ideologically inclined towards the BJP and has espoused “spiritual politics”, accused the opposition parties of misleading the people about the citizenship legislation.
During a brief interaction with journalists in Chennai, he strongly batted for the NPR saying it is “very essential” and that it was brought in by the Congress in 2010 and subsequently by the government in 2015.
“NPR is needed to identify those who are Indians, who are foreigners - which country they are from. Shouldn’t we know this,” he asked and insisted that “it is very, very essential and it has to be done.”
The actor added “I don’t know what problem others have with this.” Referring to the Central Government’s assurance that the CAA would not affect Indian citizens in anyway, Rajinikanth said the legislation was all about granting citizenship to those from neighbouring countries.
“A big scare has been created that Muslims will be affected. How will it affect Indian Muslims, who decided to stay back during partition saying this is their land where they will live and die,” he said claiming if Indian Muslims were affected he would be the first to speak for them.
