Owaisi reacts to CAA report, says ‘grave injustice, especially to Muslims…’

New Delhi: Reacting to a report saying the Citizenship (Amendment) Act’s rules would be notified before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, AIMIM chief Asadduddin Owaisi said on Wednesday that it will be a grave injustice to the marginalised communities, especially Muslims. He also said that the law that was passed in 2019 was “anti-constitutional” as it was formulated on the basis of religion.
“CAA is anti-constitution. It is a law which has been made on the basis of religion. CAA must be read with and understood with NPR-NRC which will lay down the conditions to prove your citizenship in this country. If that happens it will be a grave injustice, especially to the Muslims, Dalits and the poor of India irrespective of the caste or religion they belong to,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed the Centre was attempting to foment communal polarization ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
“Now it is clear. For all these years…these rules(CAA) were not notified…Clearly, they want to notify these rules just before the elections to use this as a political weapon to gain in the elections through sharpening communal polarisation. This is the clear-cut aim. This is utilising the rules, and declarations as a tool for some electoral gains,” he said.
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On Tuesday, news agency PTI, quoting an anonymous official, said the CAA rules will be notified much before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, due later this year.
The law makes it easier for non-Muslims — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to get Indian citizenship if they had migrated to India before December 31, 2014.
“We are going to issue the rules for the CAA soon. Once the rules are issued, the law can be implemented and those eligible can be granted Indian citizenship,” the functionary told PTI.
The passage of the law in 2019 prompted a massive protest in the national capital’s Shaheen Bagh area. The protest went on for months.
“The rules are ready and the online portal is also in place and the entire process will be online. The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No document will be sought from the applicants,” the functionary said.
Last month, union minister Amit Shah said no one would be able to stop the Centre from implementing CAA. He also accused West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading the masses on the law.
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The rules for any law must be framed within six months of presidential assent. The government can also secure extension from the Parliament’s Committees on Subordinate Legislation. Since 2020, the home ministry has been seeking this extension.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan said the BJP was raising these issues as it had failed to resolve the problem of the masses.
“The BJP has failed to fulfil their promises of providing employment, increasing farmers’ income, and ensuring women’s safety. And that’s why it is raising topics such as temples and mosques, CAA, and NRC,” he said.
With inputs from agencies