• CAA will be implemented after COVID vaccination drive is over: Amit Shah

    Politics
    CAA will be implemented after COVID vaccination drive is over: Amit Shah
    Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, denied the accusations and labelled the CAA protests as "primarily political."

    Digital Desk: The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which simplifies the process of granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, will be put into effect when the COVID-19 immunisation campaign is finished, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday.

    When he met with Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, in Parliament House on Tuesday to discuss organisational difficulties of the party's state unit, Shah gave him this assurance.

    According to Adhikari, Shah informed him that the Centre would proceed with the long-delayed implementation of the CAA once the third dosage of the COVID-19 vaccination was finished. The precautionary dosage vaccination programme was started by the government in April, and it is expected to be finished in nine months.

    Shah had made the same claim at a rally in New Jalpaiguri in May of this year. It was exactly one year after the BJP's crushing defeat in the state assembly elections that he made his first trip to West Bengal.

    The CAA aims to offer Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians. People from these communities who arrived in India prior to December 31, 2014, as a result of persecution for their religion in these nations, will not be classified as illegal immigrants but rather will be granted Indian citizenship.

    After the CAA was approved by Parliament in December 2019, the nation experienced huge protests. People who are against the CAA claim that it violates the Constitution and discriminates against people based on their faith. They further claim that the Muslim population in India is the target of the CAA and the National Register of Citizens.

    Amit Shah, the Union Home Minister, denied the accusations and labelled the CAA protests as "primarily political." He had claimed that no Indian would lose citizenship as a result of the act.

    Early this year, clashes between pro- and anti-CAA factions in Northeast Delhi turned into riots that resulted in at least 53 fatalities and 200 injuries.