A day after the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government on the Citizenship Amendment Act, union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday blamed the opposition for spreading “falsehood about the law" and assured that CAA would be implemented without affecting the rights of any Indian citizen.
“Opposition because of its vote bank…spread falsehood in the country. CAA won’t take anyone’s citizenship away. I am again clarifying that Muslims of this country have no reason to worry," the minister said at Network18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2024 in New Delhi.
Shah rejected the charge that the notification of the CAA rules was timed to be in sync with the Lok Sabha polls. “When the law was passed, a lot of confusion was spread in the country. The opposition misled people about the impact of CAA and then Covid came. That led to the delay," he said.
Dismissing statements from parties like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) that they would not implement CAA or repeal it if voted to power, Shah said the remarks were meaningless since they would never form the government at the Centre.
Opposition parties like Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have hyphenated CAA with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), alleging that the laws were anti-minority. The home minister, however, said that NRC is currently not on the table. “CAA has no provision for NRC," he said.
When pressed further if ahead of voting NRC will become an election promise once again, Shah said that the parliamentary board would decide if NRC must be included in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto.
The home minister also said that the Uniform Civil Code has been part of the BJP’s agenda since the 1950s. “I firmly believe that in a secular country, there should be one secular law. Uttarakhand has made a beginning…it will be examined legally; other states are taking a call on it," he said.
Rejecting the opposition’s charge of UCC being anti-Islam, Shah said that Muslims in India have lived without Sharia and Hadis since British rule. “Does Rahul Gandhi want Indian Muslims to return to an age where for theft hand is chopped off, for rape lynching is the punishment, and no Muslim can open a savings account?" he asked.
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