Union home minister Amit Shah during a rally in West Bengal’s Siliguri said that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be implemented once the Covid-19 wave ends.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said the Centre will take a decision on the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act across the country, ANI reported.
“It will be the decision of the Centre…Corona is still rising. We’ll look into the policy matters. We are concerned regarding safeguarding the people from Covid,” Kumar said when being asked about union home minister Amit Shah’s statement wherein he said that the Modi government will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act once Covid-19 ends.
“TMC is spreading rumours about CAA that it won’t be implemented on ground, but I would like to say that we’ll implement CAA on ground the moment Covid wave ends…Mamata Didi wants infiltration…CAA was, is and will be a reality,” the union home minister said at a rally in West Bengal’s Siliguri on Thursday.
Shah’s comments had evoked stern response from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. “Everyone having voting rights is a citizen of the country. How could they (refugees who are Indian citizens) cast their franchise otherwise, and how come he became a home minister? He has a habit of parroting lies,” she retorted.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed by Parliament in 2019, triggering violent protests across the country. The bill which amended the Citizenship Act, 1955, makes Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian and Parsi migrants who entered India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh eligible for Indian citizenship.
According to the bill, in case a person belonging to the mentioned faiths from these countries does not have proof of births of parents, he or she can apply for citizenship after six years of residence in the country. The cut-off date for people to be eligible for citizenship is December 31, 2014.
