Denoting Urgency, BJP Issues 'Three-line' Whip to its MPs Before Tabling of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill

New Delhi: Denoting urgency, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday issued a three-line whip to all its lawmakers from Monday to Wednesday.

"All BJP members in Lok Sabha are hereby informed that some very important Legislative Business will be taken up for discussion and passing in the Lok Sabha from Monday, the 9th December 2019 to Wednesday, the 11th December 2019. All members of the BJP in Lok Sabha are therefore, requested to be positively present in the House and support the government," the letter reads.

A three-line whip is a written notice, underlined three times to denote urgency.

The whip comes a day before Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduces in Lok Sabha the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there.

The Bill has triggered widespread protests in northeastern states with a large section of people and organisations opposing the Bill, saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion.

Apart from this, on Monday, Amit Shah is slated to move the Arms Amendment Bill 2019, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will move the Anti Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019, among others.