CAA likely to be implemented from January: BJP’s Kailash Vijayvargiya

By Ishank Katyal

Barasat: BJP’S General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday announced that Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented from January 2021 as the party js eager to grant citizenship to large group of rafugees in West Bengal.

Vijayvargya has already criticised the Mamata Banarjee’s government for not showing sympathy towards the condition of rafugees.

“We are hopeful that the process of granting citizenship to refugees under the CAA will begin from January next year,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the party’s ‘Aar Noy Anyay’ (no more injustice) campaign in North 24 Parganas district.

“The Centre has passed the CAA with the honest intention of granting citizenship to persecuted refugees coming to our country from neighbouring nations,” he added.

While opposing the Vijayvargiya’s statement Trinamool Congress party leader and state minister Firhad Hakim said that BJP is trying to fool the people.

“What does the BJP mean by citizenship? If the Matuas are not citizens, how come they voted in assembly and parliamentary polls year after year? The BJP should stop fooling the people of West Bengal,” he said.

The Matuas, originally hailing from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), started migrating to West Bengal in the 1950s, mostly due to religious persecution.

The community had voted hands down in favour of the BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, party sources said.

The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi refugees who have come to India from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.