Kolkata: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said that the Modi administration will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) immediately, reported the news agency ANI.
Suvendu Adhikari added that the Hindu refugees have been raising this demand since 1945.
‘Modi ji had promised in Thakur Nagar, and Amit Shah had committed again and again. The time has come to fulfil it; time is knocking on the door,’ ANI quoted Suvendu Adhikari as saying.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that as Lok Sabha elections are approaching, BJP started shouting ‘CAA CAA’ in order to get votes.
Mamata Banerjee told a meeting in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar ‘We have fought against the NRC. Rajbanshis are citizens of India.’
Banerjee came down on the BJP after Union Minister Shantanu Thakur claimed that CAA would be implemented in the country in a week.
All residents, she said, getting benefits from the state government are citizens of the country, adding that the government has acknowledged colonies as ‘permanent addresses’.
‘All of you are citizens. We have given permanent addresses to all colonies. They get rations, go to school, get scholarships, and get Kisan Bandhu, Shikhashree, Oikoshree, and Laxmir Bhandar. How could they get these benefits if they had not been citizens? Had they been able to cast votes if they were not citizens?’ Banerjee was quoted as saying.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) aims to give citizenship to non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians who migrated to India before December 31, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
The country witnessed massive protest against the Parliament passing the CAA in December 2019 and subsequent presidential assent, according to the report.