Not Anti-Muslim, Says Amit Shah On Opposition Attacks On Citizenship Law

Stressing that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is not against Muslims, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has accused the Opposition parties of resorting to "politics of lies". "I have spoken on CAA at least 41 times on different platforms and spoken in detail that the minorities of the country need not be afraid because it has no provision to take back the rights of any citizen," Mr Shah told news agency ANI in an interview.

The CAA, he said, aims to give citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

Muslims, he said, have the right to apply for citizenship in India as per the rules of the Constitution, but this law is meant for persecuted minorities from these countries.

Asked if the government may rethink its decision to implement the CAA if protests begin, Mr Shah said, "CAA will never be rolled back."

The Home Minister tore into the Opposition for targeting its decision to implement the law. Asked about a Congress leader's remark stating that they would roll back CAA when they come to power, he said, "Even INDI alliance knows that it will not come to power. CAA has been brought by the BJP, and the Narendra Modi-led government has brought it. It is impossible to repeal it. We will spread awareness across the nation so that those who want to repeal it do not get a place," Mr Shah said.

He dismissed the criticism that CAA is "unconstitutional". "This law does not violate Article 14. There is a clear, reasonable classification here. This is a law for those who, due to partition, remained in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and were facing religious persecution and decided to come to India," the Union Minister said.

Countering the Opposition's attack on the timing of implementing the law, he said, "All Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee or Arvind Kejriwal, are indulging in jhooth ki rajneeti (politics of lies), so the question of timing does not arise. BJP made it clear in its 2019 manifesto that it will bring CAA and provide Indian citizenship to refugees (from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan). BJP has a clear agenda and under that promise, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed in both houses of Parliament in 2019. It got delayed due to Covid. BJP had cleared its agenda well before the party got its mandate in the polls."

Mr Shah said notifying the rules was a formality, so there is no question of timing or political gain or loss. "Now, the Opposition wants to consolidate their vote bank by doing appeasement politics," he said.

The Home Minister said the Opposition had raised questions on 2016 surgical strikes and the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status. "So should we not take stern steps against terrorism? We have been saying since 1950 that we will withdraw Article 370," he said.

"You cannot see this law in isolation. On August 15, 1947, our country was partitioned into three parts. This is the background. Bharatiya Jan Sangh and BJP were always against the Partition. We never wanted the country to be partitioned based on religion," he said. "So when the country was partitioned on the basis of religion, minorities faced persecution, they were being converted, women in the minority section were being tortured and came to India. They came to our refuge; don't they have a right to get our citizenship? Even Congress leaders during the partition in their speeches said that those minorities should stay wherever they are due to the widespread bloodshed and they will be welcomed later in our country. Then they started doing vote bank politics for appeasement," he said.

Hitting back at the Trinamool Congress chief, who has alleged that the citizenship of minorities would be taken away through CAA, Mr Shah said, "I am requesting Mamata ji, there are several platforms to do politics, but please don't harm Bengali Hindus coming from Bangladesh. I challenge her publicly to show one such clause that has the provision of taking away the citizenship of any Indian. Her intention is to create differences between Hindus and Muslims to consolidate vote bank," Mr Shah said.