Sri Sri Ravi Shankar urges Centre to grant citizenship to over 1 lakh Lankan Tamils

Chennai, Dec 10: Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Tuesday urged the Centre to consider giving citizenship to more than a lakh Sri Lankan Tamils living in the country as refugees for more than three decades.

"I request the Government of India to consider giving citizenship to more than one lakh Tamil Sri Lankans who are living in this country as refugees for the last 35 years. #CABBill," he said in a tweet. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's plea to the Centre comes a day after the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

According to the proposed legislation, members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan by December 31, 2014 and faced religious persecution in those countries, will not be treated as illegal immigrants and given Indian citizenship.

Tamil Nadu has a significant number of Sri Lankan Tamils living in various parts of the state, including in government camps.