Kamal Haasan seeks inclusion of Sri Lankan Tamils, Muslims in Citizenship (Amendment) Bill

Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on December 9. Earlier, spiritual guru Ravi Shankar and lyricist Vairamuthu had batted for providing citizenship to Lankan refugees  

Tamil Nadu: Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan questioned why Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims were left out of the ambit of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill if it was a "genuinely benevolent" legislation.

"Why are Tamils who are subjected to a methodic genocide and Muslims facing discrimination, be excluded from the bill? If it's a genuinely benevolent bill and not a vote garnering exercise, then why won't this CAB stop to pick up stranded Tamils and troubled Muslims of Sri Lanka?" he said in a tweet.

Earlier in the day, spiritual guru Ravi Shankar and lyricist Vairamuthu had batted for providing citizenship to Lankan refugees staying in the country for over three decades.

Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Monday. The bill is being tabled in Rajya Sabha for its consideration.

According to the proposed legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan by December 31, 2014 and faced religious persecution in those countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants and given Indian citizenship.

Tamil Nadu has a significant number of Sri Lankan Tamils living in various parts of the state, including in government camps. Many of them had fled Sri Lanka during the ethnic strife in the 1980s.