A fresh row erupted in West Bengal after Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari claimed on Tuesday that implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had started in the country and West Bengal would not be left out.
Adhikari’s comment came a day after the central government decided to grant Indian citizenship to minorities mostly from Pakistan, who are living in Anand and Mehsana districts of Gujarat, under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
According to a Union home ministry notification, those Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians residing in the districts of Anand and Mehsana in Gujarat will be allowed registration as a citizen of India under section 5 or will be granted certificate of naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2009.
However, Adhikari claimed that this decision came as the Union government had started enforcing the CAA, 2019.
“CAA has already been rolled out in two districts of Gujarat by the notification giving citizenship to certain minority groups who came from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan,” he said.
“Bengal cannot be left out of the CAA implementation process. The Matua community members and other backward castes like namasudras will get certain benefits soon. The CAA will also be rolled out in our state,” the Nandigram MLA added.
Union minister of state for shipping Shantanu Thakur, who is a member of the Matua community, backed Adhikari, saying, “I can only say if the CAA is implemented, it will be of great help to members of backward castes including the Matua community.”
“The process has started with Gujarat. It will be done in other BJP-ruled states, such as Uttar Pradesh, as well,” he added.
Adhikari’s comments drew criticism from leaders of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and CPI(M).
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the ruling party in West Bengal will never allow the CAA to come into force in the state. “The BJP will not be able to roll out the CAA in the country. Suvendu Adhikari is making tall claims ahead of the 2023 Panchayat polls as part of their effort to polarise the society,” he alleged.
Echoing Ghosh’s sentiments, Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked why certain refugees were being excluded. “Why doesn’t the Centre offer citizenship to refugees from Sri Lanka and Myanmar? Don’t they have rights? The BJP is focusing only on Islamic nations to create hatred in our society,” he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
“The Congress stands for integration and harmony, not dividing the society along religious lines,” he added.
“We will not allow the CAA to be implemented in the country. The BJP cannot impose any such decision without any consensus. None of the secular parties in the country will allow this to happen,” CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said.
The CAA, which offers fast-tracked citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before 2015, was rolled out in 2019 but was met with widespread protests across the country. As the rules under the Act have not been framed by the Centre yet, no one so far could be granted citizenship under it.
(With inputs from PTI)
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