CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship: Amit Shah

CAA is an act to provide citizenship to persecuted refugees: Amit Shah

Muslim community is being provoked: Amit Shah

The Citizenship Amendment Act that had become a cause for widespread protest in the year 2019 later moved down the list of priorities for the government since the pandemic. This might be due to both political reasons with many state elections lined up as well as constraints with preparing the National Population Register (NPR) due to the pandemic. 

However, the Minister of Home Affairs of India, Amit Shah has given a statement that has further added intrigue ahead of the Lok Sabha election. “The CAA is an act of the country…It will be notified before the polls. There should be no confusion around it. Minorities in our country, and especially our Muslim community, are being provoked…The CAA cannot snatch away anyone’s citizenship because there is no provision in the Act. The CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan,” Amit Shah said in the ET Now- Global Business Summit held in New Delhi. 

It would be interesting to see the implications of this step in case Amit Shah follows through on his words. In February 2020, Delhi witnessed communal clashes emerging around the sites of protest. If it does get implemented before the election, the acceptance of the act among people would also factor into the election result.