Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. He said, “Those who could not come to India at the time of partition and were persecuted on the basis of religion in these different countries.”
He added, “People who came to India before 2014 had no rights here, so PM Modi has done a good job by giving them citizenship so that they can also live their lives with dignity and raise their children.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday provided a web portal on which eligible non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan fleeing religious persecution can now seek Indian citizenship.
A mobile app ‘CAA-2019’ will also be launched very soon to facilitate applications through the mobile app.
Now, the persons persecuted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh on religious grounds of six minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians– can apply for grant of Indian citizenship on the portal https:/indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in.
The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants–including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians–who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
Earlier in the day, Samajwadi Party MP ST Hasan criticised the implementation of CAA by the central government, saying, “This is just a tactic to distract the people and an election stunt.”
“We have no objection to people being given citizenship but why has religion been defined in that? Are Muslims not being persecuted in the countries that have been mentioned in the act. In fact, the Ahmediyas are persecuted in all three countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh),” Hasan said.
In a sharp critique, Shiv Sena (UBT) Spokesperson Anand Dubey questioned the timing of the recent Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) notification, suggesting that the government had a decade to introduce it. (ANI)
