It is official and it is legal. Henceforth, the Modi government will now start granting "Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India till December 31, 2014".
Union Minister Shantanu Thakur hails from Matua Hindu Bengali community and they were worst victims of British policy of Divide and Leave India in Chaos.
The 'partition' was one of the most gory chapters of human history and Hindus and other non-Muslims Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis facing religious persecution in these three countries can now get 'official help as a matter of right' in India -- it's not only world's largest democracy. It is also a country of 140 crore and most being Hindus here.
Union Minister Shantanu Thakur expressed gratitude to the central government for implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) which will give citizenship rights to the Matua community. Matuas are Namasudras, a Hindu Scheduled Caste group who trace their ancestry to 'East Bengal' or Bangladesh.
It is not without reasons that a section of West Bengal's Matua community celebrated the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 at the headquarters of the sect in Thakurnagar, North 24 Parganas, on Monday, March 11, claiming it to be their 'second independence day'.
The community, with an estimated population of three million in the state, can tilt the scales in favour of a political party in more than 30 assembly seats in Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganas districts bordering Bangladesh.
"It's an historic day...," said Shantanu Thakur adding, "I am more than delighted that this CAA law has come into enforcement stage in my lifetime. Prior to this three earlier generations from our community has suffered untold miseries and harassment as there was no suitable law giving us adequate legal protection".
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| Thakur: Seeing is Believing !! |
Modi’s government had not crafted implementation rules for the law after protests and sectarian violence broke out in New Delhi and elsewhere within weeks of the law’s December 2019 enactment. Scores were killed and hundreds injured during days of clashes.
“The Modi government announces implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act,” a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said in a text message.
“It was an integral part of BJP’s 2019 manifesto. This will pave [the] way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India,” he said, referring to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 2019 election manifesto.
A Home Ministry spokesperson said the rules will enable those eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for the grant of Indian citizenship, and that applications would be submitted online via a web portal that had been provided.
Of course, there is another version. Muslim groups say the law, combined with a proposed national register of citizens, can discriminate against India’s 200 million Muslims — the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
They fear the government authorities might subsequently remove the citizenship of Muslims without documents in some border states.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 and subsequently got the President's assent but there were protests in several parts of the country against it, with many opposition parties speaking out against the law calling it "discriminatory". The law could not come into effect as rules had not been notified till now.
"These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation.
"With this notification, PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji has delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of our Constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries," Home Minister Amit Shah said on X.
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that it is a ploy of the BJP to get Hindu votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and wondered how people would produce proof documents of religious persecution.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would fiercely oppose the CAA if she found it to be discriminatory against groups of people living in India and if it curtailed their existing citizenship rights in any manner.
Mamata asked, “Why do this only days before the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be announced? Why did the Centre have to wait for four years to notify the law after it was passed in Parliament?
The CAA implementation could prove to be the proverbial 'last nail' vis-a-vis electoral prospects of Mamata Banerjee's outfit in the coming parliamentary polls.
Members of the Matua community celebrated the occasion by beating drums and exchanging pleasantries and expressed their gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and local MP and Union minister Santanu Thakur for the Act's implementation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Orakandi in present-day Bangladesh, the birthplace of Matua gurus Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur in 2021, ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections.
However, a TMC supporter from the area, belonging to the sect, claimed that people of the community had previously obtained voter ID cards, ration cards, and Aadhaar cards, which were deactivated by the BJP a month ago.
Thanking the prime minister for "realizing the dream of three generations of Matuas", Santanu Thakur said that due to "political conspiracies in the past”, many of the Matuas had to stay back in East Pakistan as there was no act like CAA to recognise their right to live in India.
“From today, not only every Matua but also other refugees, who had to leave their homes due to religious persecution, will become full-fledged citizens of the country," he told a press meet at the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata.
Earlier, the Matuas and other refugees needed certain pre-1971 land documents for getting passports, the minister said adding that the CAA has made those norms a thing of the past.
His relative and former TMC MP Mamatabala Thakur told reporters: "It is all aimed at getting votes. What about the citizenship rights already granted to Matuas after 1947? Will the CAA force them to come up with identity proofs once again and throw them into an uncertain future?"
State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “This is nothing but a ploy to get Hindu votes in the Lok Sabha elections. Otherwise, why did it take years to notify the rules? The refugees need to produce copies of complaints lodged in connection with religious persecution. How will it be possible for them to produce such documents?”
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