Days after the Narendra Modi-led government implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the law will never be taken back, adding that the BJP-led Centre will never compromise with it.
Shah, in an interview to news agency ANI, said, “This is our sovereign right to ensure Indian citizenship in our country, we will never compromise on it and CAA will never be taken back.”
On the flak received over the law from the opposition, INDIA bloc, especially when a Congress leader said that the law would be repealed if the party comes to power, the Home Minister said even the opposition is aware that it has barely any chance to come back to power.
“Even INDI alliance knows that it will not come into power. CAA has been brought by the BJP party, and the Narendra Modi-led government has brought it. It is impossible to repeal it. We will spread awareness about it in the whole nation so that those who want to repeal it do not get a place,” Shah noted.
He also dismissed any condemnation which said that the citizenship law is “unconstitutional” citing that it does not violate the constitutional provisions.
He said that those who criticise, always talk about Article 14, but they tend to forget the two clauses that it encompasses. “This law does not violate Article 14. There is a clear, reasonable, classification here. This is a law for those who — due to partition — remained in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and were facing religious persecution and decided to come to India,” the Union Minister said.
Shah also responded to the Opposition’s jibe at the timing of notifying the CAA rules, which is before the Lok Sabha elections, and said, “First of all I will talk about the timing. All opposition parties including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata or Kejriwal are indulging in jhooth ki rajneeti (politics of lies) so the question of timing does not arise.”
He pointed that the BJP had made it clear in its 2019 manifesto that it will bring CAA and provide Indian citizenship to the persecuted refugees. He said that the party holds a “clear agenda” and under that very promise, the CAA bill was passed in both the Houses of the Parliament in 2019.
“It got delayed due to Covid. The BJP had cleared its agenda well before the party got its mandate in the polls,” Shah added.
He said that “rules are now a formality”. Taking a swipe at the Opposition, the home minister said that now that there is “no question of timing, political gain or loss”, the Opposition is trying to get its vote bank with “appeasement politics”.
“I want to request them that they have been exposed. CAA is the law for the entire country and I have reiterated nearly 41 times in four years that it will become a reality,” Amit Shah told ANI.
Citing the “main aim” of providing justice and due rights to the persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Shah dismissed the basis of “political gain”.
“The opposition had even raised questions on surgical strike and the abrogation of Article 370 and linked it with political gain, So should we not take stern steps against terrorism? Shah questioned, adding that the BJP has been “saying since 1950 that we will withdraw Article 370.”
“I have spoken on CAA at least 41 times on different platforms and spoken on it in detail that the minorities of the country need to be afraid because it has no provision to take back the rights of any citizen,” Shah noted.
He reiterated that the CAA is aimed to giving “Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2024 and through this law, their suffering can be ended.”
Amit Shah criticised opposition leaders like AIMIM’s Asaddudin Owaisi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for their claims terming CAA to be ‘anti-Muslim’.
With inputs from News18