Thakur had last Sunday claimed that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would be implemented across the country “within a week”, following which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the BJP “opportunistically raised” the issue of CAA just ahead of the polls, while asserting she will “never allow its implementation in the state as long as she is alive”.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme here, Thakur, the Union Minister of State for Shipping and Ports, said, “CAA is the demand of the country… any opposition to the issue (of rolling out CAA) does not matter (to Centre).” “It has been our promise and we never go back on our words. The Centre will get it done,” he asserted.

Thakur said both Houses of Parliament have already passed the Bill which reflected the will of the people. “Those who are opposing the CAA are doing so for political reasons and not taking a sympathetic view of the situation (faced by immigrants displaced from their homes),” Thakur said.

The CAA has been in limbo as the Centre is yet to frame its rules amid the Opposition’s strong stand against the law. Soon after Parliament had passed the law in 2019, widespread protests broke out across the country. The CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.