BJP favours granting citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs from Pakistan

The BJP has demanded that the government grant citizenship to Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan who have fled to India after facing harassment there.

"Every person who wishes to return to our country, should be granted citizenship, irrespective of the community he or she belongs to," BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu said here.

He was asked about the demand of Hindu and Sikh families from Pakistan, who have been residing here for over a decade, that they be given Indian citizenship.

"It is my stand and also of my party that they should be granted citizenship," he said, adding there was a need to expedite the process of granting citizenship.

Nearly 200 such families are residing in Jalandhar. The Punjab BJP had set up a committee to study problems of Hindu families which have settled in the state after being driven out of Pakistan.

The three-member committee is headed by Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna who has demanded that the government provide an assistance Rs 4,000 per month to each of these displaces families.