NEW DELHI: As the Centre notified rules for the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Monday, several opposition parties attacked the government, calling it as the latest move to polarise and create unrest ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The ruling BJP and its allies welcomed it, saying that what Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised was delivered now.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “CAA Rules, 2024 rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenships in our nation.”
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that CAA will not be implemented in the state.
Under the CAA, citizenship will be given to persecuted minorities—Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians—who have migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to India till December 31, 2014. It took five years for the government to notify the rules for the law, which was passed in December 2019.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would fiercely oppose the CAA if she found it to be discriminatory against groups of people living in India and if it curtailed their existing citizenship rights.
“Why notify it only days before the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be announced? Why did the Centre have to wait for four years to notify the law after it was passed in Parliament? The Centre should have published the notification before leaking it to the press... Why wait for the sundown? This, after all, is not freedom at midnight,” the Trinamool Congress chief said.
In 2019, when Home Minister Shah proposed NPR-NRC-CAA combine across the country, several opposition-ruled states had announced that they will not implement either the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the CAA.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the move is to polarise the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam. In a post on X, he said the saffron party took more than four years to notify the rules for CAA. “The PM claims that his government works in a business-like and time-bound manner. The time taken to notify the rules for CAA is yet another demonstration of the Prime Minister’s blatant lies and headline management,” said Ramesh.
Describing the law as divisive, Vijayan said, “The government has repeatedly stated that the CAA, which treats Muslim minorities as second-class citizens, will not be implemented in Kerala. That remains the position. All of Kerala will stand united in opposing this communally divisive law.”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the government should also explain why lakhs of citizens gave up their citizenship of the country during their 10-year rule.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the CAA is divisive and based on Godse’s notion that Muslims should be “reduced to second-class citizens”. CPI general secretary D Raja said, “BJP-RSS links citizenship with religion and our Constitution doesn’t make religion as the criteria for citizenship...”
