CAA will be implemented after COVID vaccination ends: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah Thursday said the process of granting Indiancitizenship to refugees under the CAA, including to the Matuacommunity of West Bengal, will begin once the process of COVIDvaccination has ended.

Accusing the opposition parties of misleading theminorities about the Citizenship (amendment) Act, he said, itsimplementation will not impact the citizenship status ofIndian minorities.

Shah said the Modi government had in 2018 promised itwill bring in a new citizenship law and kept it when the BJPwas voted to power in 2019.

He said, after the country was hit by the COVID-19pandemic in 2020, its implementation had to be kept inabeyance.

''Mamata didi said we made a false promise. She startedopposing the CAA and saying she will never allow it. The BJPalways fulfils the promises it makes. We have brought this lawand refugees will get citizenship.

''As soon as the COVID vaccination process ends theprocess of granting citizenship under CAA will begin. All ofyou will be respected citizens of this country,'' he said,addressing a rally here in the bastion of the Matua community.

Matuas, originally from East Pakistan, are weakersection Hindus who migrated to India during the Partition andafter the creation of Bangladesh. Many of them have beenaccorded Indian citizenship but a sizeable section of thepopulation has not got it.

The Matua community, with an estimated population ofthree million in the state, can tilt the scales in favour of apolitical party in at least four Lok seats and more than 30assembly seats in Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganasdistricts. It once stood solidly behind the TMC but hadsupported the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

A section of state BJP leadership is apprehensive thatthe delay and confusion over the implementation of the CAAcould make them turn against the saffron party.

Shah asserted that Banerjee will not be in a positionto oppose the implementation of the CAA as she will cease tobe the chief minister after the assembly polls likely inApril-May this year.

''Mamata Didi is misleading the people on the CAA. Butlet me tell you that she won't be a position to oppose as shewill not be the chief minister after April-May. We willimplement the CAA, it is a law that has been passed byParliament,'' he said.

''As the Home Minister of this country, I want toassure the minorities of India that none of you will losecitizenship. The CAA is about granting citizenship torefugees, it is not about taking away anyone's citizenship,''he said.

Accusing the erstwhile Congress and the Left Frontgovernments of West Bengal of never bothering about grantingcitizenship to the refugees, Shah said they betrayed them muchin the same way as the TMC did.

Shah also attacked the Mamata Banerjee government overBangladeshi infiltration, and asserted only a BJP governmentcan stop it.

Courting the Matua community, Shah said if voted topower, the BJP government will propose renaming theThaukurnagar railway station 'Shri Dham Thakurnagar' after SriSri Harichand Thakur, their socio-religious guru.

After coming to power in West Bengal, the BJPgovernment will introduce 'Chief Minister Sharnarthi KalyanYojana' for the welfare of the refugee population.

Reacting to Shah's assertion about implementing theCAA, Mamata Banerjee said he should mind his language anddeclared she will never allow it to be enforced in WestBengal.

''The home minister of the country should be carefulabout his utterances. We will never allow CAA, NRC or NPR inBengal. They can say whatever they want to. They want todestroy Bengal. We will never allow them to do that,'' sheasserted.