Taking exception to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's criticism of the Centre over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Sunday challenged KCR to point out anything in the Act that affects anyone in the country.
His response came a day after KCR said that the Telangana Assembly may pass a resolution against the CAA, following in the footsteps of some other non-BJP ruled states like Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab.
"I condemn KCR for announcing that he will not implement CAA in Telangana. I challenge the Chief Minister to show if there is anything in the Act that affects any of the 130 crore people (in the country)," the Union Minister of State for Home told reporters in Hyderabad.
"KCR and the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) do not have the moral right to criticise the BJP on the matter," he added.
State BJP president K Laxman claimed that KCR had joined the Congress in opposing CAA with "unfounded doubts and ill- motives."
Coming out strongly against the law, KCR had on Saturday said that he may convene a meeting of regional parties and Chief Ministers to oppose the amended citizenship law.
Asserting that the TRS was secular by nature and policy, he said that the CAA was a wrong decision by the Centre as the Constitution provides fundamental rights to all people of the country irrespective of religion, caste and creed.
"India cannot be converted into a Hindu nation. We are a secular country. This country belongs to all the people. We should continue to be secular," he said.
Later on Saturday, thousands of people gathered at the Khilwat Ground in Hyderabad to express their opposition to the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
On the eve of India's Republic Day, leading poets Rahat Indori, Manzar Bhopali, Shabeena Adeeb, Sampat Saral and others, recited their poems to a huge crowd.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi presided over the programme, which concluded with the singing of the national anthem.