New Delhi, April 5 (IANS): Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar came out in defence of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Friday and advised caution against the false narrative and misinformation campaign around the controversial law.

Addressing a 2023 batch IAS Officer Trainees at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy Of Administration, Mussoorie, the Vice President said that CAA neither seeks to deprive any Indian citizen of his or her citizenship, nor excludes anyone from applying for Indian citizenship as before.

He further underlined the fact that the CAA was meant for those persecuted minorities who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, and hence, was not an invitation to influx.

"We have to neutralise these narratives. These emanate not out of ignorance but out of a strategy to run down our nation," he said, and also called upon the young minds to rebuff such untenable anti-national narratives.

The Vice President also spoke about India's leadership role in various spheres of governance and said that the country was setting new precedents.

"Some countries are yet to have a woman president, while we had a woman Prime Minister before even the UK had. The Supreme Court in other countries completed 200 years without a woman judge, but we have," he said while stressing that India does not need any sermons from anyone on this planet on the point of equality.

The Vice-President further said that governance has taken a turn for the better in recent years.

"Democratic values and essence are deepening as equality before law is being enforced in an exemplary manner and corruption is no longer a trading commodity," he added.

In his address, the Vice President also told the IAS probationers that people look up to them as role models.

"You have to exemplify by actions that are worth emulating, inspiring and motivating young minds and eliciting admiration of the elders in any capacity," he said.