As protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)continued on Friday and parts of the country were kept under strict vigil,Union home minister Amit Shah stepped up the heat on the Congress party for “failing to secure the country."

Addressing a public meeting in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla,Shah also hit out at the Congress for allegedly misleading people in the wake of the passage of CAA. The country has witnessed violent clashes over the last two weeks over provisions of the Act.

“In this country every person of the minority community must be safe and it is our constitutional duty. But this did not happen in Bangladesh and Pakistan. On the basis of religion, people were persecuted. They came here in lakhs and urged us to give them citizenship because they had now hereto go. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the courage to grant them that and the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed," Shah said.

Shah also accused “Congress and Company" for spreading rumours that Muslims will lose citizenship. “I challenge Rahul Gandhi to point out one place in this whole Act which says that a person will lose his/her citizenship. Do not mislead people and break the peace in this nation,"Shah added.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadratook a dig at the home minister following his “understand the chronology"phrase in the wake of the passage of the law. "Understand thechronology... First they will promise you two crore jobs. Then they will formgovernment. Then they will ruin your universities. Then they will destroy thecountry's Constitution. Then you will protest. Then they will call you a ‘fool’but youngistan will not budge," she wrote on Twitter.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s attack comes as students clashedwith police forces across the country and mobile internet restrictionscontinued in Uttar Pradesh. Police force conducted flag marches to deter protestorsfollowing Friday prayers.

Shah said “The Congress government ruled India for 10 years,Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh ran the government for 10 years and everydayPakistan would send infiltrators through the borders and they would behead oursecurity personnel and the Prime Minister would not utter a word."

“Borders were open and porous, and then Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s government came, Pakistan thought it would be the same. Butthey did not know this government. They (Pakistan) attacked Uri and Pulwama,but this government conducted surgical and air strikes within 10 days and wipedout terrorists after entering Pakistan," Shah added.

On the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in Kashmir,earlier this year, Shah said, “When PM Modi was brought back for the secondterm, on 5 August, he scrapped Article 370 and Kashmir is now the crown jewelof the country and the Indian flag has been hoisted in the Valley and it is amessage to the world that it is an integral part of India."

Shah also took a dig at the Congress party for failing toexpedite judgment on the Ayodhya case. “The Congress party had problems evenwhen it came to the Ram Janmabhoomi case. They kept stalling it. But theSupreme Court has now delivered its judgment and there will be a sky-hightemple in the place Lord Ram was born," he said.