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Union Home Minister Amit Shah assured persecuted refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to have faith in the Narendra Modi government and said that under the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), everyone will be given equal rights as they will now become citizens of India.
"There are a lot of people, there is no count as of now. Due to the wrong campaign going on, many people will hesitate to file an application. I want to assure everyone to apply here and have faith in the Narendra Modi government that you will be given citizenship with retrospective effect. This law is accepting you as a refugee. If you have entered India illegally, there will be no criminal case against you...There is no need for anyone to get scared. Everyone will be given equal rights as they will become the citizens of India," Amit Shah said in an interview with ANI on being asked about the number of people getting citizenship after CAA.
The Home Minister said there is no need for any section or any person to fear because there is no provision in CAA to take away anyone's citizenship.
"CAA is only to give rights to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians and Parsi refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan..."
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Answering a query, he said those who get citizenship under CAA will be added to the citizenship list like every common citizen of India.
"They will have as many rights as you or I have. They can contest elections and become MP, MLA, CM and Ministers."
"All those people who have entered India between 15th August 1947 and 31st December 2014 are welcome here. As per my knowledge, there are 85% people who have relevant documents. We will find a solution for those who don't have the documents. Even Muslims have the right to apply for citizenship in India under the rules of the Constitution," he added.
The Home Minister assured the minorities that there was no case for their rights to be taken away by the implementation of the CAA.
"I have spoken on CAA at least 41 times on different platforms and spoken on it 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. The CAA 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, and through this law, their sufferings can be ended" he added.
The Home Minister was critical of opposition leaders like AIMIM's Asaddudin Owaisi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for claiming that the CAA was anti-Muslim.
"You cannot see this law in isolation. On August 15, 1947, our country was partitioned. Our country was partitioned into three parts; this is the background. Bharatiya Jan Sangh and BJP were always against the Partition. We never wanted that 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. Now they started doing vote bank politics and due to appeasement," Mr. Shah added.
The Home Minister said that it was the moral duty of the government to ensure the rights of those who were persecuted.
"The people who were part of Akhand Bharat and who were prosecuted or tortured those people should be given refuge in India and this is our social and Constitutional responsibility. Now if you look closely at the statistics, in Pakistan when the partition happened there were 23% Hindus and Sikhs but now only 3.7% of Hindus and Sikhs are left. Where are they? They have not returned here. They were converted, tortured, and insulted they were given second-class status. Where will they go? Will the country not think about them, will Parliament will not think about them, and should the political parties not think about them?" the Home Minister said.
On March 11, the Union Home Ministry notified rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The CAA, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, 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.
