Days after the central government notified the Citizenship Amendment Act, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the law will never be taken back and the BJP-led government will never compromise with it. In an interview with ANI, Amit Shah 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.”
Asked about the opposition INDIA bloc, specifically a Congress leader stating that they would repeal the law when they come to power, the Home Minister said that even the opposition is aware it has bleak chances of coming to power.
The union minister also dismissed criticism that the “CAA is unconstitutional” stating that it does not violate the constitutional provisions.
“They always talk about Article 14. They forget that there are two clauses in that Article. 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.
Replying to the Opposition’s claim of the timing of bringing notification of CAA before the Lok Sabha elections, Amit Shah 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. BJP has made it clear in its 2019 manifesto that it will bring CAA and provide Indian citizenship to refugees (from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan). BJP has a clear agenda and under that promise, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in both houses of Parliament in 2019. It got delayed due to Covid. BJP had cleared its agenda well before the party got its mandate in the polls.”
“Rules are now a formality. There is no question of timing, political gain, or loss. Now, the Opposition wants to consolidate their vote bank by doing 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,” he said.
The Home Minister said that it was the moral duty of the government to ensure the rights of those who were persecuted.
On March 11, the Union Home Ministry notified rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The CAA, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aims to confer 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, 2014.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from ANI)
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‘CAA will never…’: Union Home Minister Amit Shah makes big statement
