NEW DELHI: Amid growing claims by opposition parties that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (
CAA
) will be scrapped immediately if they come to office, Union home minister
Amit Shah
on Thursday declared that the process of giving citizenship under the law will begin this month, while also defending the “timing” of
Arvind Kejriwal
’s arrest by saying it was occasioned by the Delhi chief minister’s repeated non-compliance with Enforcement Directorate’s (
ED
) summons.
“Applications have already started to come in. The scrutiny is happening according to the rules. And I think before the elections, before the last phase, the process of giving citizenship will start,” Shah told News 18 Network.
The assertion follows Congress joining Left, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Communist Party of India (Marxist) to promise repeal of CAA, meant to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have taken shelter here to escape religious persecution. Opposition parties have called the law discriminatory on the ground that it does not cover Muslims.
Govt has justified the omission by saying that CAA is meant to help religious minorities from the three neighbouring Muslim countries and that it does not provide for cancellation of anyone’s citizenship.
In the interview with the TV channel, Shah dismissed the contention that the dip in polling numbers could hurt BJP and said outdated electoral rolls and lack of “competition” were the main reasons why turnouts in the first two phases lagged the poll percentage in the first two rounds in 2019. “There are many reasons for the lower turnout. After 12 years, the electoral rolls have been revised. The second reason is that there is no contest from the other side, which affects the turnout in a way,” he said.
On the timing of arrests of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Shah emphasised that both had repeatedly refused to answer summons. “They did not appear after many summonses. If they had appeared (before the agency) after the first summons, they would have been arrested six months before the elections. Many times, summonses were sent, but they did not come,” he said.
