CAA implementation before Lok Sabha elections: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated on Saturday that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would be notified and put into effect prior to the forthcoming Lok Sabha election calling it an “act of the country”. Shah stressed that the act is to provide citizenship and not to “take away anyone's citizenship”.

Speaking at the ET Now-Global Business summit in Delhi, Shah asserted, “The CAA is an act of the country...It will be notified before the polls. There should be no confusion around it. Minorities in our country, and especially our Muslim community, are being provoked…The CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship because there is no provision in the Act. The CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan.”

The implementation of the CAA, passed in the Parliament on December 11, 2019, has been a prominent electoral promise for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the Lok Sabha elections, marking it as a significant agenda for the party.

Shah also criticized the previous Congress government, accusing them of reneging on their commitment to execute the CAA in the country. He highlighted, “The CAA was a promise of the Congress government. When the country was divided and the minorities were persecuted in those countries, Congress had assured the refugees that they were welcome in India and they will be provided with Indian citizenship. Now they are backtracking.”