#JhootJhootJhoot": Rahul Gandhi On PM Modi's "No Detention Centres" Claim

Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "no detention centres" claim.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday over his claim that there are no detention centres in India and the suggestion that a nationwide rollout of National Register of Citizens is not happening.

"The Prime Minister of the RSS lies to Mother India," Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, along with an edited clip of PM Modi's speech at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on Sunday and a media report on a purported detention centre in Assam. The Congress MP also added the hashtag #JhootJhootJhoot (Lies, Lies, Lies).

The Prime Minister's statement on citizens' list, which has been hugely criticised by the opposition, was questioned strongly by the opposition.

PM Modi had accused the Congress and "urban Naxals" of spreading rumours about the issue. "The Congress and its allies - some urban Naxals - are spreading rumors that all Muslims will be sent to detention centers... Neither is anybody sending the country's Muslims to detention centres nor are there any detention centres in India... The Muslims of India don't need to worry at all. The CAB and the NRC will not apply to the Muslims of the country," PM Modi had said at a mega rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday.

"I want to tell the 130 crore citizens of India that since my government has come to power, since 2014, there has been no discussion on NRC anywhere. Only after the Supreme Court's order, this exercise was done for Assam," he said in his 97-minute speech, most of it devoted to the NRC and the new citizenship law, protests against which are being held across the country.

The BJP hit back at Mr Gandhi for his attack on the Prime Minister. "Today, Rahul Gandhi has tweeted something and the kind of language he has used is very objectionable. He has said that the Prime Minister of the RSS lies to Bharat Mata. I think it is wrong to expect decency and good language from Rahul Gandhi," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference.

Home Minister Amit Shah had echoed PM Modi's views in an interview with news agency ANI, saying there has not been any discussion on implementing pan-India citizens' list.

There have been violent protests in several parts of the country against the amended Citizenship Act, the first-ever law to make religion a criteria for citizenship. The government says it will help non-Muslims from Muslim-dominated Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan become Indian citizens if they fled religious persecution in their country and entered India before 2015. Activists, students, opposition parties and other protesters say the law discriminates against Muslims and is against the secular tenets of the constitution.