Ram mandir done, CAA will be implemented in next seven days, says Union Minister

Union Minister of State, Shantanu Thakur, while addressing a public rally in West Bengal said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be implemented across the country in the next seven days.

Also Read: BJP again crying 'CAA CAA' for votes: Mamata Banerjee

"Ram Mandir has been inaugurated (in Ayodhya), and within the next seven days, the CAA - Citizenship (Amendment) Act - will be implemented across the country. This is my guarantee. Not just in West Bengal, the CAA would be implemented in every state of India within a week," said Thakur at a public rally in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas yesterday.


On December 27, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that no one can stop the implementation of the CAA as it is the law of the land.


Previously, a senior government official said that rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 would be notified "much before" the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

Mamata says BJP using CAA for votes:
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the BJP by saying that the party has again started crying "CAA-CAA" for the sake of votes as Lok Sabha elections are approaching.

"We have fought against the NRC. Rajbanshis are citizens of India. They have again started shouting CAA, CAA for the sake of votes," Mamata Banerjee said at a public distribution program in West Bengal's Cooch Behar on Monday.

The West Bengal Chief Minister said that her government has acknowledged all colonies as "permanent addresses," and all residents who get the benefit of various state government benefits are citizens of the country.

"All of you are citizens. We have given permanent addresses to all colonies. They get ration, go to school, get scholarships, get Kisan Bandhu, Shikhashree, Oikoshree, Laxmir Bhandar. How could they get these benefits if they had not been citizens? Had they been able to cast votes if they were not citizens?" Banerjee questioned.

About CAA:
Under the CAA brought in by Narendra Modi-led government, Indian nationality will be granted to persecuted non-Muslim migrants--Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.

Major protests erupted after the parliament passed the law, claiming the lives of over a hundred.

Meanwhile, in the last two years, more than 30 district magistrates and home secretaries of nine states have been given powers to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955.

The nine states where Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization is given under the Citizenship Act of 1955 to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra.

Authorities of none of the districts of Assam and West Bengal, where the issue is politically very sensitive, have been given the powers so far.

(with agency inputs)