The process for granting citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to genuine refugees from neighbouring countries facing religious persecution who are coming to India, including West Bengal, will be completed soon, announced Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday.
Speaking at a convention on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in Kolkata, the Union Home Minister said that although the Liaquat-Nehru Pact treaty signed on April 8, 1950, by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was meant to establish a framework to guarantee the rights of minorities in both countries, in reality the safety of minority Hindus in Pakistan and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) was not kept in mind.
Shah said that Shyama Prasad Mukherjee studied the pact and realised that the interests of minority Hindus in Pakistan and East Pakistan were not taken care of in it, though the same pact gave importance to safeguarding the interests of Muslims in India.
He added that with the party of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee being in power, the CAA had been promulgated to give citizenship to Hindu and other refugees coming to India facing religious oppression in neighbouring countries. He assured that citizenship would be granted to all such refugees and that the process of granting citizenship would be completed soon.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Home Minister was all praise for West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari for his performance in the first two months as the state's administrative head. According to Shah, CM Adhikari had fulfilled his pre-election promise of strong action against anti-social and corrupt elements in the state.
The Union Home Minister also said that the pre-election promise to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state is on its way towards fulfilment. He said those involved in corruption should be prepared now, and that all of them would be held ccountable.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also virtually addressed the convention and said that Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's life inspired a mass movement. He said it gave rise to a philosophical movement in India, and that when the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed, the Congress was triumphantly popular nationwide, with no room for other ideologies. He added that Shyama Prasad Mukherjee created the organisation by challenging that adversity.