CAA brought in a hurried manner ahead of Lok Sabha polls: Abhishek Banerjee
Telegraph | 13 March 2024
Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday slammed the BJP over the implementation of the CAA rules ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and asserted that there is no clarity regarding the legislation which has been brought hurriedly.
As per the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. The CAA rules were notified on Monday.
According to TMC sources, Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary, while addressing a closed-door meeting of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe unit of the party, "wondered why it took five years to frame the rules when the law was passed in 2019".
"During the meeting, our leader Abhishek Banerjee said it takes an average of one to one and a half months to frame rules. But it is almost five years since the law was passed in parliament in 2019. He said there is no clarity and this has been done ahead of the elections to reap political dividends", a TMC leader said after the meeting.
Attacking the BJP-led government at the Centre over the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday claimed the rules notified were "unconstitutional and discriminatory".
Addressing an official programme at Habra in North 24 Parganas district, Banerjee said she would not allow the implementation of the CAA in West Bengal and urged the people to think several times before applying for citizenship under the law.
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