Will implement CAA once COVID-19 vaccination drive is over: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which facilitates granting of Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, will be implemented once the COVID-19 vaccination drive is over, reported The Indian Express. 

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

Adhikari said that after the meeting, Shah conveyed to him that the Centre will go ahead with the long-pending implementation of the CAA once the third dose of COVID-19 vaccination is completed. The government has launched the precautionary dose vaccination in April and it is expected to be completed in nine months. 

In May this year, Shah had made the same claim at a rally in New Jalpaiguri. It was his firsst visit to West Bengal exactly a year after the BJP’s drubbing in the state assembly elections. 

The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities -- Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian -- from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. People from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution in these countries will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

After the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019, widespread protests were witnessed in the country. Those opposing the CAA contend that it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA along with the National Register of Citizens is intended to target the Muslim community in India.

However, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had dismissed the allegations and described the protests against the CAA as "mostly political". He had asserted that no Indian will lose citizenship due to the Act.

Clashes between pro and anti-CAA groups had spiralled into communal riots in Northeast Delhi early this year which had left at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.