Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Citizenship Amendment Act was to correct a “historical injustice”, asserting that “New India” was determined to confront and resolve old malaises and move ahead.

Modi accused the Opposition parties of competing for their vote bank by opposing the CAA and laid stress that the country was silent but watching and understanding everything. The Prime Minister used phrases like “takraya jaayega (will be confronted)” and “niptaya jaayega (resolved)” to underline the government’s determination.

“Some political parties are competing to grab their vote bank. After all, for whose interest are they working? Why can’t they see the atrocities on minorities in Pakistan? How daughters are being raped and abducted? Why are they trying to belie this? They should answer,” Modi asked those opposing the CAA without naming anyone. He was speaking at an event of the National Cadet Corps.

Seeking to project him as a strong leader, Modi said his opponents were after him because he was taking the bull by the horns and resolving one after the other old malaises plaguing the country.

“For India’s future, I’m ready to bravely face and defeat all the political conspiracies, take all the abuses to secure the country’s future,” he said.

“It’s right the country is silent but fully understands the issue. For vote bank, lies are being spread,” he said. “For vote bank and appeasement politics, they didn’t allow problems to be solved for decades,” he added.

Modi targeted “self-proclaimed” Dalit leaders for opposing the CAA and said the Dalits would benefit the most. He claimed that an advertisement for recruitment of safai karmacharis (sanitation workers) by the Pakistan Army had said that only non-Muslims could apply. “So, the advertisement was for Dalits and we should remain quiet,” he said. “Why can’t they (the Opposition) see atrocities on Dalits in Pakistan?” he asked.

Against the backdrop of resolutions being moved in the European Parliament against the CAA, Modi accused the Opposition of “spreading propaganda”.

“Modi apni pratishtha ke piye paida nahi hua, Modi ke liye desh ki pratishtha sab kuch hai (Modi wasn’t born for his reputation. For Modi, the country’s reputation is everything),” he said.

With the Delhi polls scheduled for February 8, Modi talked about his government’s decision to regularise hundreds of illegal colonies in the capital and used it to claim that his government doesn’t discriminate on the basis of religion. “Every countryman is important for us,” he said.

Modi didn’t refer to the Shaheen Bagh protest but talked about “anti-India slogans” and “insult of the Tricolour” in the context of Kashmir and abrogation of key provisions of Article 370. He said his government was doing everything the “youth of the country wants”.