New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Thursday slammed the Opposition for indulging in “politics of lies” over the the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
While asserting that CAA will never be rolled back, he also came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi, Asaduddin Owaisi and Mamata Banerjee for calling it anti-Muslim. “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,” Shah said in an interview with news agency ANI.
Responding to the timing of the notification of the rules shortly before the Lok Sabha, he said, “All opposition parties including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee or Arvind Kejriwal are indulging in ‘jhooth ki rajneeti’ (politics of lies) so the question of timing does not arise. The BJP’s 2019 manifesto spoke about CAA and giving citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. BJP has a clear agenda and under that promise, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in both houses of Parliament in 2019 but it got delayed due to Covid… The opposition wants to do appeasement politics and wants to consolidate their vote bank.”
“For our leader PM Modi ji and our government, it is our duty to give adequate rights to those persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who were living like refugees in India. It is a question of giving them rights that have eluded them for three generations and empathising with their pain,” he added while denying any political motive behind the move.
IMPLEMENTING CAA
Shah said that the law can’t be seen in isolation as it carries a history with itself and National Register of Citizens (NRC) has nothing to do with it. “I said this nearly 41 times in recent times that the minorities in India need not worry as there is no provision to take away anyone’s citizenship. It only guarantees citizenship for persecuted minorities of Hindu, Skih, BUdhist, Christian and Parsi denominations,” he assured the Muslim community once again.
“Those people who were living in undivided Indian and then underwent persecution for following their faith we must offer them citizenship. It is our moral duty. You can look at the statistics and see the drop in the Hindu population in Pakistan since independence.”
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.
On West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, threatening not to implement the contentious rules, Shah said: “They also know they don’t have the rights. Article 11 of our Constitution gives all the powers to make rules regarding citizenship to India’s Parliament. This is a Centre’s subject, not the state’s… it’s not a combined subject.”
“CAA will be implemented in Assam and other parts of the country. Only the States in the North East where two types of special rights have been granted, only those areas will not implement CAA. This includes the areas where there is a provision for the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and the areas that are granted special status under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution,” he asserted.
“I think everyone will cooperate after the elections. They are spreading misinformation for appeasement politics,” Shah added.
OPPOSITION POSITION
Shah slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee for failing distinguish between refugees and infiltrators. “The day is not far, when BJP will come to power there (West Bengal) and will stop infiltration. If you do this kind of politics and with such an important national security issue, you allow infiltration by doing appeasement politics and oppose the refugees from getting citizenship, then people will not be with you.”
He also asked Rahul Gandhi to explain his reason for opposing the CAA to the general public. “At the time of partition, the leaders of the Congress said that people should not leave their places as there was violence and later they will be given citizenship in India. Now the Congress has forgotten that for its vote bank politics.”
On Kejriwal’s statement that giving citizenship to refugees will increase thefts and rapes, Shah said that the Chief Minister has lost his calm after his corruption was exposed. “He does not know that all these people have already come and are living in India. If he is so concerned, then why doesn’t he talk about Bangladeshi infiltrators or oppose the Rohingyas?”
When asked about AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s allegations that the law is “anti-Muslim”, the Home Minister said, “The criteria is for those who are religiously persecuted. In Pakistan, which is an Islamic state, who will persecute Muslims? We will also provide to citizenship to everyone if they apply. They can’t infiltrate.”
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