Shashi Panja (right) with Trinamool Congress party leaders during a recent protest rally in Kolkata.
Credit: PTI Photo
The BJP is “using” citizenship legislation as a “tool before elections”, the Trinamool Congress has alleged, as the issue gains momentum in West Bengal’s political space.
Senior Trinamool leader and minister in the state government Shashi Panja, on Wednesday, said that there was no question of the legislation being implemented in West Bengal.
“The (central) Minister of State Shantanu Thakur double speaks. In Delhi he says one thing, and his version changes when he is in Bengal,” Panja referred to the central minister’s recent remarks, while she spoke of her party’s counter-stand.
“This is regarding CAA. Let me tell you again. Our honourable chief minister and also the chairperson of AITC (Trinamool) has categorically mentioned that CAA will not be implemented in Bengal,” the Trinamool leader said.
She added that those people who are already citizens of Bengal, need not be given citizenship twice.
“They are recipients and beneficiaries of various developmental schemes in Bengal. So, BJP is merely using CAA as a tool before elections…,” Panja said, adding that “they” are going back on what they said, with a doublespeak.
Thakur has stated that he never said the CAA has to be implemented before the 2024 elections. He, however, added that he is confident that the CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.
The news agency PTI, quoting a “senior government functionary” on Tuesday, reported that the Rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 “will be notified ‘much before’ the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections”.
The legislation offers citizenship to members of the persecuted minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians) from bordering countries, namely, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, who have arrived in India till December 31, 2014.
In his recent visit to Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that CAA will be implemented, while he alleged that the Bengal chief minister was misleading people (concerned) on the issue.