Amit Shah slams Opposition over CAA: ‘Refugees denied citizenship due to…’

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday accused the Congress of appeasement politics over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), alleging that people seeking refuge in India were not given justice from 1947 to 2014. 

“CAA is not just for giving citizenship to people, it is also to give justice and rights to lakhs of people. Because of the appeasement politics of Congress and its allies, people seeking refuge did not get justice from 1947 to 2014,” Shah was quoted by ANI as saying at an event for distributing citizenship certificate under CAA at Ahmedabad.

“They were tortured in neighbouring countries because they were Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain, but they were also tortured in their own country... The appeasement politics of INDI Alliance did not serve them justice... PM Modi gave them justice,” Shah added. 

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Rejecting the opposition's criticism of the CAA being anti-Muslim, Shah was quoted by PTI as saying,"No one will lose citizenship as CAA is about granting rights to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain refugees. I would like to make it clear to my Muslim brothers and sisters that CAA is about granting citizenship, not taking it away."

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‘Past govts allowed intruders into India’: Shah

Amit Shah alleged that past government allowed intruders into the country and illegally granted them citizenship while denying it to those who followed the law and applied for the same by saying there was no legal provision for it.

He said Bangladesh had 27 per cent Hindus at the time of partition, but today they are just 9 per cent as they have been subjected to forced religious conversion.

Shah handed over citizenship certificates to 188 Hindu refugees in Gujarat's Ahmedabad. “We were not allowed to live there peacefully. We were harassed there. We came here and got the citizenship. We are very happy,” Prem Lata, a refugee, told ANI.

“I came here in 2008... I got citizenship today. I thank PM Modi and HM Amit Shah for it. We got a new life after coming to India... Our children could not get educated... It was difficult for women to get out of their homes,” another refugee said.

(With agency inputs)