CAA Before LS Polls Aimed At Pushing BJP’s Communal Rhetoric, Says TMC

The ruling TMC in West Bengal on Tuesday raised concerns over reports of the imminent notification of CAA rules before the Lok Sabha elections, alleging that such speculation aims to mislead the public and spread BJP's communal rhetoric ahead of the parliamentary polls.

The rules for the implementation of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) for fast-tracking citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are likely to be issued before the Model Code of Conduct for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections comes into effect.

The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) gets enforced immediately after the election schedule is announced, which is likely in the next fortnight.

The rules for the CAA are likely to be issued before the MCC comes into effect, sources privy to the development said.

"Our party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has clearly said we will oppose CAA. We are concerned with the sort of reports that are coming out regarding the implementation of the Act. The way Aadhaar cards of residents of the state were being deactivated was a precursor to enforcing the Citizenship Amendment Act," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

The senior TMC leader said the party would oppose tooth and nail the efforts by the Centre "to impose CAA as it considers it as a part of BJP's communal rhetoric before the elections".

When the rules for the CAA are issued, the Modi government will start granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants - Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians - from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.

The CAA was passed in December 2019 and it got the President's assent subsequently. However, the law could not be implemented so far as rules are a must for its implementation.

There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament. Over a hundred people lost their lives during the protests or police action.

In December last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said no one can stop the implementation of the CAA as it is the law of the land and accused the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading people on the issue.

Addressing a party meeting in Kolkata, Shah said it is the BJP's commitment to implement the CAA.

The TMC, led by Mamata Banerjee, has been opposing the CAA since the beginning.

The promise of implementing the controversial CAA was a major electoral platform for the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in West Bengal. The saffron party's leaders believe it played a significant role in the BJP's ascendancy in the state.

According to the manual of parliamentary procedures, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek an extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Since 2020, the home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from the parliamentary committees for framing the rules.

Several people lost their lives during the protests or police action after Parliament passed the law.