“CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha Elections”: Home Minister Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday claimed that the Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented before the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, rubbishing fears that the law may snatch citizenship of minorities in the country. “The CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship… it is an act to provide citizenship to refugees,” said the Union Home Minister.

“The CAA is an act of the country. It will be notified before the polls. There should be no confusion around it. Minorities in our country, and especially our Muslim community, are being provoked. The CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship because there is no provision in the Act. The CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan,” said Amit Shah while speaking at a media organization's business summit in Delhi.

The Union Home Minister took a dig at the Congress for the grand old party’s alleged failure to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act across the country. “The CAA was a promise of the Congress government. When the country was divided and the minorities were persecuted in those countries, Congress assured the refugees that they were welcome in India and that they would be provided with Indian citizenship. Now they are backtracking,” said Shah.

The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed in 2019 in order to provide citizenship to immigrants belonging to six religious communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, and Parsis – who migrated from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before on or before December 31, 2014. The rules have not been framed as yet, thus, even after receiving the President’s assent, it has not been implemented as a law. Several Opposition parties opposed to the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had stated that she would not allow the implementation of the act in her state.