Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would be implemented after the coronavirus pandemic wears off. “I want to make it clear that the TMC (Trinamool Congress) is spreading rumours that CAA will not be implemented. Let me tell you that after the Covid-19 pandemic ends, CAA will be implemented. This was there and this will be there,” he added.
Shah, who steered the passage of CAA — which promises to grant citizenship to minorities from neighbouring countries between March 24, 1971 and December 31, 2014 — claimed that CM Mamata Banerjee is against giving refugees citizenship and in favour of infiltration. “Mamata ‘didi’ only wants infiltration to continue and is against giving citizenship to refugees who have come to Bengal. The CAA was a reality, is, and will be a reality,” he said with an eye on the Matua community, members of whom are believed to have voted BJP on the back of the promise of citizenship.
Mamata has been at the forefront in opposing the CAA and NRC and has vowed not to allow its implementation in Bengal. Members of the Matua community, who make up a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, have been migrating to West Bengal from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) since the 1950s.
Training his guns further on Mamata over the increasing spate of political violence in the state, the Home Minister — who arrived in the state on Thursday for a two-day visit, his first since the 2021 assembly polls — alleged that “she has made Bangal ko kangal“.
“We accepted people’s mandate for Mamata for the third time. We thought she will rule better but has her atrocity reduced? Murder reduced? Raped reduced?… Don’t think BJP will not fight. I want to say BJP will continue their fight…,” Shah added while addressing a public meeting in north Bengal’s Siliguri.
Lambasting the state government over post-poll violence, Shah told party workers not to be afraid as nobody can stop the BJP’s march to Bengal. He also took a dig at Mamata for sending TMC delegation to different states and asked “why did you not send a delegation to Birbhum and Hanshkhali?”. Hanshkhali in Nadia district was recently rocked by the gang rape and murder of a girl, a student of class 9, on April 4. The prime accused is the son of a TMC panchayat member, the girl’s family claimed.
In Bogtui village in Birbhum’s Rampurhat, eight people were burnt alive in their homes by a mob last month, following the killing of local Trinamool Congress’s Panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh. The incident led to widespread revulsion across the country and also sparked a political firestorm.
Shah also said how Bengal is reeling under huge debt and the menace of syndicate raj. Alleging that Mamata has ignored North Bengal, Shah said the chief minister has “done injustice” to the region, pointing out how the state has metro connectivity everywhere except Siliguri.
The Home Minister also touched upon the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland saying that he wants to assure the Gorkhas that only the BJP thinks about the community and also promised then a “permanent solution” within the “constitutional periphery”.
Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated BSF’s floating border outposts (BOPs) at Hingalganj in Sunderbans area of North 24 Parganas district and flagged off a boat ambulance. Shah interacted with senior BSF officials during the occasion.
“In this extremely challenging area of the Sundarbans, the Modi government is providing all help to BSF, which is carefully securing the country with utmost care,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. “Launched Boat Ambulance for health facilities at these floating border posts of BSF. This boat ambulance will prove to be very helpful in any emergency situation,” he added in another tweet.
Shah also launched a veiled attack on Mamata Banerjee, saying while it was the job of the BSF to make the area impenetrable from smuggling and infiltration, that was ‘difficult without the help of the local administration’. “But have faith that even that help will be available soon, the creation of such a political situation is also going to happen here soon. There will be such pressure from the public that everyone will be forced to help,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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