The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), enacted in 2019, will be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections after issuing the rules in this regard, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.
Saying that the process to grant Indian nationality to the beneficiaries will start soon after, Shah said, “The CAA is a law of the country and its notification will definitely be issued. It will be issued before the polls. The CAA will be implemented before the elections. No one should have any confusion about it.”
The Home Minister said he wanted to make it clear that the CAA is not a law to snatch anyone’s citizenship.
“Our Muslim brothers are being misled and instigated (against the CAA). The CAA is only meant to give citizenship to those who came to India after facing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is not for snatching anyone’s Indian citizenship,” he said, adding that the CAA is a constitutional agenda, signed by the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
“But the Congress had ignored it due to appeasement. The enforcement of the UCC in Uttarakhand is a social change. It will be discussed on all forums and face legal scrutiny. A secular country cannot have religion-based civil codes,” he said.
Under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the Modi Government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
He said granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities of the neighbouring countries was a promise of the Congress leadership too. “When the Partition happened — Hindus, Buddhists, Christians — all wanted to come to India after facing religious persecution there. They (Congress leaders) had promised to give citizenship to these people saying all of you are welcome. But the (Congress) leaders went back on their word,” Shah said.
Delayed by over four years, rules for the CAA are a must for its implementation. Officials said rules are ready and the online portal is also in place as the entire process will be online.
The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No document will be sought from the applicants. The benefits under the CAA will be given to the undocumented minorities from the three countries.
The promise of implementing the controversial CAA was a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in West Bengal. The saffron party’s leaders consider it a plausible factor that led to the rise of the BJP in Bengal.
According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek an extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Since 2020, the home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.
In the last two years, over 30 District Magistrates and Home Secretaries of nine States have been given powers to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
