New Delhi: The Citizenship (amendment) as a historic step and a fulfillment of Mahatma Gandhi’s wishes said President Ramnath Kovind on Friday, amid unprecedented opposition parties’ protests.

Ramnath Kovind, in his 70 minutes address to a joint session of parliament before the building of the parliament session. He touched upon a number of issues ranging from facilities for Muslim students, ram temple in Aayodhya and the need to improve the economy. He referred to the CAA; it was downed in the crescendo of “Shame Shame” from the opposition.

When Ramnath Kovind began praising the contentious CAA, the members of the ruling BJP began to thump their desks and very soon the opposition congress and other MPs were seen shouting “Shame, Shame”. Congress MPs including senior leaders Sonia Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, sat on the fifth and sixth rows and refused to sit in their designated front row seats.

The congress MPs also wore black armbands. At around 11:45am, as the president was still speaking on the CAA, TMC Mps got up and silently stood. Some wearing white shirts with “No NRC” written on them, and other brandishing cloth placards with the slogans written on them as “No CAA, No NRC and No NPR”.

The president not only hail the new citizenship law, he also criticized any kind of violence, seeing it would weaken the society. The society and the nation, without directly referring to the anti-CAA protest across the country. Some of protest which have seen violence.