Porni Banerjee | ১৪ মার্চ ২০২৪ ১৩ : ১৫Porni Banerjee

Amid heated debates among several political leaders following the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted today that no state can block CAA and that the Centre will never compromise with it.

“CAA will never be taken back. It is our sovereign decision to ensure Indian citizenship in our country, we will never compromise on it,” Amit Shah said in an interview.

Further explaining that CAA does not snatch a person’s citizenship, Shah said, “There is no need for minorities or any other person to fear because there is no provision in CAA to take away anyone"s citizenship.”

“CAA is only to give rights and citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians and Parsi refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan,” Shah added.

Discussing about opposition parties denying CAA, Shah said, “All Opposition parties including Asaduddin Owaisi, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee are doing politics of lies The BJP said in its manifesto in 2019 that it would bring CAA and give citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.”

In addition, further talking about the percentage of non-Muslims in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Shah said, “If you look closely at the statistics, in Pakistan when the Partition happened, there were 23% Hindus and Sikhs but now only 3.7% of them are left. Where did they go? They have not returned here. They were converted, tortured, and insulted. They were given second-class status. Where will they go? Will the country, Parliament, and the political parties not think about them?”

The Home Ministry notified rules for the implementation of CAA on March 11. CAA is aimed to fast-track citizenship of the non-Muslims migrants who were persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Act, enacted on December 11, 2019 was a subjected to heated and widespread debates and massive protests throughout India back then.