NEW DELHI: The notification of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules is both a political and an ideological statement by the BJP as the Narendra Modi government now goes into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections claiming that it has fulfilled all its three big promises during its second term.
The first major promise was the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, the second has been the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and now finally the implementation of the CAA four years after it was passed by Parliament. The rules required to implement the Act got delayed by over four years due to protests earlier and then the Covid-19 pandemic.
The CAA implementation also puts India in the position of being the ‘home country’ for persecuted minorities in the neighbouring countries as they have nowhere else to go, and strengthens the BJP’s ideological position that Hindus in the sub-continent would see India as their ‘motherland’. The election campaign will reflect it.
“We have fulfilled all big promises strictly under the provisions of the Indian Constitution. Ram Mandir was given a go-ahead by the Supreme Court. There was no tension in the country after the Ram Temple decision or abrogation of Article 370. People will appreciate this. They will also value that all these promises could be fulfilled only because there is a full majority government of Narendra Modi in the country for the last two terms. This paves the way for our target of ‘Abki Baar, 400 Paar’,” a senior BJP minister told News18 on Tuesday. PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah could reiterate this during the election campaign.
In doing so, the government will be stressing upon the fact that CAA does not snatch away anyone’s citizenship and, in fact, does not impact any Indian citizen at all. BJP leaders have pointed out that it has been a wrong propaganda by the opposition parties against CAA to misguide and instigate the minorities.
“What problem should anyone have about persecuted minorities in our neighbouring countries being given Indian citizenship in a fast-track manner? Opposition is now asking why the rules have been brought just before the elections…earlier they were asking why the rules have been delayed. The government is fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to give effect to the Act,” the senior BJP leader mentioned.
A government source said the rules simplify the process to get citizenship, by making it fully online and specifying documents needed for the process. He also said that states may say they won’t implement CAA but the same is not in their hands as an empowered committee will be deciding upon citizenship requests so the states have limited role. “The Centre will make it sure that CAA is effectively implemented and no person eligible for benefitting under the law is denied citizenship,” he said.
(Source: News18)
