As a lawyer, Owaisi should not mislead people on citizenship document: Ramchander Rao

BJP State President N. Ramchander Rao addressed the media in Hyderabad on Friday. | Photo credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

BJP state president N. Ramchander Rao strongly objected to AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi’s remarks that only the BJP membership card and not the passport would be the authentic document for citizenship.

At the press conference, Mr. Ramchander Rao recalled that the courts have established in their judgments that a passport is not an irrefutable proof of citizenship. The Bombay High Court in a 2013 judgment had clearly said that a passport is a travel document.

He cited as an example that the spiritual leader Dalai Lama has a passport but is not an Indian citizen and suggested to Mr. Owaisi that instead of spreading false information, he should inform people about the facts as he was also a lawyer.

Mr. Rao alleged that opposition parties are spreading false propaganda on SIR and misleading people. He accused both Congress and MIM of adopting similar tactics they adopted during CAA.

On the Tungabhadra water sharing issue, the BJP chief welcomed the inauguration of the modernized spillway in Karnataka, which was attended by CM A. Revanth Reddy. He asked Mr. Revanth Reddy to reveal the details of the talks held with Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil after the program as Telangana was getting only 5 tmc of water from Tungabhadra instead of 15.9 tmc.

He alleged that both the BRS and the Congress had committed injustice to the people of Telangana by compromising the share of water in the Godavari river.

Published – 26 Jun 2026 21:10 IST