CAA will be implemented before LS polls, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed by the Parliament in December 2019, will be notified and implemented before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"CAA is an Act of the country, it will be definitely be notified. It will be notified before the polls. CAA will be implemented by the polls, and there should be no confusion around it," Shah said speaking at the ET Now-Global Business summit in New Delhi. 

"CAA was a promise of the Congress government. When the country was divided and the minorities were persecuted in those countries, Congress had assured the refugees that they were welcome in India and they will be provided with Indian citizenship. Now they are backtracking," Shah said.

He said in categorical terms that CAA was brought in to provide citizenship and not to take away anyone's citizenship.

"Minorities in our country, and specially our Muslim community, are being provoked. CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship because there is no provision in the Act. CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan."

The CAA, introduced by the Narendra Modi government, aims to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

Following the passage of the CAA by Parliament in December 2019 and its subsequent presidential assent, significant protests erupted in various parts of the country.

Speaking about the upcoming Lok Sabha polls the home minister said that this election was about corruption against development.

"This election is not about I.N.D.I.A vs NDA. This is about corrupt governance vs. zero tolerance against corruption. This election is about those who want to secure national security vs. those who, in the name of foreign policy, endanger national security" the Union home minister said.