After Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented before the Lok Sabha polls, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi said on Sunday that the law is wrong and against the essence of India and is purely based on religion.
"This is the wrong law. It is against the essence of India and is formed purely based on religion. CAA cannot be seen alone. It has to be seen with NPR-NRC. Those Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan and Afghanistan can come here; we have never opposed them. A long-term visa allows them to become Indian citizens through a process. It aims to harass Muslims, Dalits and the poor. During the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, we also got a resolution passed in the assembly that the government will conduct a census but NRC-NPR will not be allowed here," he said.
"AIMIM has always been against CAA and will continue to oppose it," Owaisi added.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed by Parliament in December 2019, will be notified and implemented before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
CAA will definitely be notified: Shah
"CAA is an act of the country; it will definitely be notified. It will be notified before the polls. CAA will be implemented by the polls, and there should be no confusion around it," Shah said, speaking at the ET Now-Global Business summit here in the national capital.
"CAA was a promise of the Congress government. When the country was divided and the minorities were persecuted in those countries, Congress assured the refugees that they were welcome in India and that they would be provided with Indian citizenship. Now they are backtracking," Shah said.
The CAA, introduced by the Narendra Modi government, aims 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.
Following the passage of the CAA by Parliament in December 2019 and its subsequent presidential assent, significant protests erupted in various parts of the country.
