Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in a rally to launch the BJP's Lok Sabha campaign in Kolkata, declared on Wednesday that the Narendra Modi government will implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and no one can stop it.
Shah criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issues of appeasement, infiltration, corruption and political violence and urged people to throw out her government and elect the BJP in the next assembly polls.
Turning to the contentious CAA issue, Shah questioned, “In the state in which so much infiltration occurs, will development take place there?” Shah asked. “That is why Mamata Banerjee is opposing CAA... But I would say that CAA is the law of the country, and no one can stop it. We will implement it…”
The BJP had won 18, its highest ever, of the state's 42 seats in the last Assembly elections in 2019.
Mamata Banerjee, along with other major opposition parties, has consistently opposed the implementation of CAA. In December 2019, she said, "As long as I am alive, CAA will not be implemented in Bengal. No one has to leave the country or the state. There won’t be any detention centre in Bengal," expressing solidarity with the nationwide student protests against CAA.
The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by Parliament on December 12, 2019. However, even two years later, its implementation is yet to be finalised as it led to the widespread protests across the country, with critics denouncing it as a frontal attack on the Constitution.
The CAA was passed to provide Indian citizenship to the illegal migrants who entered India on or before 31st December 2014. The Act was passed for migrants of six different religions such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
