CAA will implemented at earliest, says Union Minister Shantanu Thakur

Kolkata: Union minister Shantanu Thakur on Saturday asserted that the CAA will be implemented 'at the earliest' and that those opposing the legislation are doing so for political reasons.

Thakur had last Sunday claimed that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would be implemented across the country 'within a week', following which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the BJP 'opportunistically raised' the issue of CAA just ahead of the polls, while asserting she will 'never allow its implementation in the state as long as she is alive'.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme here, Thakur, the Union Minister of State for Shipping and Ports, said, 'CAA is the demand of the country... any opposition to the issue (of rolling out CAA) does not matter (to Centre).' 'It has been our promise and we never go back on our words. The Centre will get it done,' he asserted.

Thakur said both Houses of Parliament have already passed the Bill which reflected the will of the people.

'Those who are opposing the CAA are doing so for political reasons and not taking a sympathetic view of the situation (faced by immigrants displaced from their homes),' Thakur said.

The CAA, enacted in 2019, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim immigrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.