Union home minister Amit Shah Thursday said the process of granting Indian citizenship to refugees under the CAA, including to the Matua community of West Bengal, will begin once the process of Covid.
“As soon as vaccination drive will conclude and we become Corona-free, the work of providing citizenship will be undertaken,” he said.
Addressing a rally at Thakurnagar in West Bengal, Amit Shah said: “CAA is parliament’s law, how can you stop it? Also, you will not be in a position to stop it.”
He said, after the country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, its implementation had to be kept in abeyance.
“In 2018, we promised to ensure justice to my Matua (consistency) brothers and sisters that we will bring citizenship act. We fulfilled our promise in 2019 after Matua’s brothers and sisters fully supported us. Today, I would like to assure you that we will implement CAA once the COVID-19 vaccination process gets over,” Amit Shah said.
Matuas, originally from East Pakistan, are weaker section Hindus who migrated to India during the Partition and after the creation of Bangladesh. Many of them have been accorded Indian citizenship but a sizeable section of the population has not.
Shah said Banerjee would not be in a position to oppose the implementation of the CAA as she would cease to be the Chief Minister after the Assembly polls likely in April-May this year. PTI