The Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be implemented across India within the next seven days, Union Minister Shantanu Thakur made this bold assertion as a guarantee in West Bengal on Sunday (28th January).
Addressing a public gathering in Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas, Thakur said in Bengali, “The Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has been inaugurated, and within the next seven days, the CAA will be implemented across the country. This is my guarantee. Not just in West Bengal, the CAA would be implemented in every state of India within a week.”
VIDEO | "Ram Mandir has been inaugurated (in Ayodhya), and within the next seven days, the CAA – Citizenship (Amendment) Act – will be implemented across the country. This is my guarantee. Not just in West Bengal, the CAA would be implemented in every state of India within a… pic.twitter.com/f5Ergu5TG3
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 29, 2024
Notably, Shantanu Thakur is BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Bangaon, Bengal and he is the Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in the PM Narendra Modi’s government.
According to the Union Minister, the act will be implemented within a week not just in West Bengal but across the country.
During his address, Thakur also reiterated Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s earlier remark on the implementation of CAA.
On 27th December last year, Union Home Minister Shah had asserted that the BJP-led Union government would implement the CAA stating that “no one can stop it”.
Back then, Shah also launched a scathing attack against Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who has been vehemently opposing the implementation of CAA.
During his address at a large rally at Kolkata’s iconic Esplanade, Shah had also slammed West Bengal CM over the issues of infiltration, corruption, political violence, and appeasement. He then urged the crowd to dethrone her government from Bengal and elect BJP in the 2026 Assembly elections.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act
The Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on 11th December 2019. A day later, it received the President’s assent following which it was notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Act, when implemented, will grant Indian nationality to persecuted minorities who belong to any of these six faiths namely – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians – from three neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Those migrants who had come to India till 31st December 2014 can be granted citizenship under this act.
As per the parliamentary procedural manual, legislation rules must have to be formulated within six months of presidential assent, or the Home Ministry should request an extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Since 2020, the Home Ministry has routinely sought extensions from the parliamentary committees to draft the rules citing challenges posed by the COVID pandemic.
The act aims to fulfill India’s long-standing commitment to minorities in India’s neighbourhood, under the Nehru-Liaquat agreement, to grant Citizenship to persecuted minorities in Undivided India. However, it was subjected to massive anti-CAA protests including the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protest which culminated in the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots in 2020 on account of uncalled-for and blatantly false accusations that it strips nationality or affects Indian Muslims.
In the past two years, over 30 district magistrates and home secretaries from nine states have been authorised to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians arriving from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955.
