CAA Will Be Implemented Before 2024 Lok Sabha Elections: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared on Saturday that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would be officially implemented prior to the upcoming Lok Sabha election, emphasizing its significance as a national measure. Shah clarified that the purpose of the act is to grant citizenship rather than revoke it from anyone.

Speaking at the ET Now-Global Business summit in Delhi, Shah stated, "The CAA is a national legislation...It will be enacted before the elections. There should be no ambiguity about it. Certain elements are instigating minorities in our country, particularly our Muslim community... The CAA does not revoke anyone's citizenship as there is no provision for it. The CAA is aimed at granting citizenship to refugees who faced persecution in Bangladesh and Pakistan."

The BJP has prominently featured the assurance of CAA implementation, which was passed in Parliament on December 11, 2019, as a key electoral agenda during the Lok Sabha elections.

Shah also criticized the previous Congress government for reneging on its promise to enact the CAA.

"The CAA was a commitment made by the Congress government. When the country was partitioned and minorities faced persecution in those countries, Congress had pledged to the refugees that they were welcome in India and would be granted Indian citizenship. Now they are retracting," he remarked, as reported by news agency ANI.

What is the Citizenship Amendment Act?

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), introduced by the Narendra Modi-led government, aimed to confer Indian citizenship upon persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, who fled from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution or the fear thereof. However, Muslims and other communities who fled from the same or neighboring regions were not included, sparking widespread protests across the nation.

Initially, protests erupted in Assam on December 4, 2019, following the introduction of the CAA in Parliament. The protests escalated nationwide after the passage of the Act on December 11, 2019, with some regions experiencing violence. Protesters denounced the CAA as "discriminatory" and an "assault on India's secularism." Reports indicated casualties either during the protests or as a result of police intervention, while thousands of demonstrators were detained.