CAA will not dilute the rights of Tribals says Union Home Minister Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that the Citizen (Amendment) Act that has come into effect will not be implemented in the Northeastern states where there is a provision for the Inner Line Permit (ILP) including areas that are granted special status under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the Citizen (Amendment) Act that has come into effect will not be implemented in the North-Eastern states where there is a provision for the Inner Line Permit (ILP) including areas that are granted special status under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution. The Union Home Minister also said that the implementation of the CAA will not dilute the composition and the rights of the tribals.

In an interview with ANI, Amit Shah was asked whether the CAA would be implemented in Assam and if there is any link between the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the CAA. "The NRC has nothing to do with the CAA. CAA will be implemented in Assam and other parts of the country. Only the States in the North East where two types of special rights have been granted to the people, only those areas will not implement CAA," he said.

"This includes the areas where there is a provision for the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and the areas that are granted special status under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution," said Shah. Asked if the CAA will change the composition of the tribal areas, Shah said, "Not even a bit. CAA will not change or dilute the composition and the rights of the tribal areas."

"We have made provisions in the Act itself that wherever there is an Inner Line Permit and whatever areas are included in the 6th Schedule areas, CAA will not be applicable there. The applications with the address in those areas will not be uploaded to the app. We have excluded it from the app itself," said Shah. The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who came to India on or before December 31, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A day after the central government notified CAA rules, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma declared that he would be the first to step down from his post if even a single individual, who has not applied for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), is granted citizenship under the newly implemented law. The BJP leader's remarks came in the wake of sporadic protests in Assam, with the All Assam Students Union (AASU) criticising the Centre for enforcing the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The law aims to provide citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Speaking to ANI, Home Minister Amit Shah also slammed the vocal critics of the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the country and asserted that the States have no power to refuse CAA since the right to exercise this law rests only with the Union Government and not with the States.

Amit Shah said, "The States have no power to refuse the implementation of CAA. The right to make this law rests only with the Union Government and not with the States." The Union Home Ministry on March 11 notified rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule.

The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim 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. (ANI)

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