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The federal government on Monday issued a notification for implementation of the contentious Citizenship Modification Act. The CAA – which makes faith, for the primary time, a take a look at of citizenship – was cleared by Parliament in December 2019 amid violent protests, wherein over 100 folks died, and fierce resistance from opposition politicians and non-BJP states.
Now that the notification is issued, the federal government can grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants – from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – who got here to India earlier than 2015.
Implementation of the Citizenship Act – a significant marketing campaign platform for the ruling BJP within the 2019 normal election and numerous state polls – comes simply weeks earlier than the 2024 Lok Sabha ballot, wherein Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s occasion will bid for a 3rd consecutive time period.
This comes lower than a month after Dwelling Minister Amit Shah careworn the CAA shall be applied earlier than the election. “CAA is an act of the nation… it’ll positively be notified. CAA will come into impact earlier than the election (and) no one must be confused about this.”
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has lengthy been one of many CAA’s fiercest and most vocal critics, has hit out nearly instantly, telling reporters at a hastily-convened presser that her authorities will oppose “something that discriminates (towards) folks”.
The Trinamool boss additionally identified the CAA and the NRC, or Nationwide Register of Residents, have been delicate subjects in Bengal and the northeast – in elements of which the CAA has been exempted by the centre – and that she doesn’t need unrest earlier than the election.
Earlier she accused the BJP of raking up the CAA challenge right now for votes. “With elections approaching, BJP has once more raked up CAA challenge to reap political advantages. However let me make it clear, so long as I’m alive, I can’t enable it in Bengal,” she mentioned.
Ms Banerjee is not the one opposition politician to battle towards the CAA.
Ms Banerjee’s Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin, was equally emphatic. Accusing the BJP authorities of going “towards communal concord”, the DMK boss too vowed he wouldn’t implement the legislation.
Different states – like Kerala and Punjab – and others then dominated by the Congress (and now by the BJP) – akin to Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – additionally opposed the CAA and handed resolutions. In actual fact, the Bengal and Kerala governments additionally stopped all NPR, or Nationwide Inhabitants Register, and NRC work.
In Telangana, the then-ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi of ex-Chief Minister Okay Chandrashekar Rao additionally handed resolutions towards all three and urged the federal government to “take away all references to any faith, or to any international nation” in view of fears expressed by lakhs throughout the nation.
The Madhya Pradesh authorities – then additionally dominated by the Congress – additionally handed a decision, and, considerably, a number of BJP leaders and lawmakers from the state additionally criticised the legislation.
The federal government has mentioned the Citizenship Modification Act will assist minorities from Muslim-dominated nations get citizenship in the event that they fled because of spiritual persecution. Nevertheless, critics say it’s designed to discriminate towards Muslims and violates secular rules of the Structure.
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