CAA implementation is an Election Agenda, says Shiv Sena (UBT)

Shiv Sena (UBT) Spokesperson Anand Dubey offered a pointed critique, questioning the timing of the recent notification regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), implying that the government had ample opportunity over the past decade to introduce it.

Dubey expressed his concerns, stating, “We are sitting in March 2024, if you wanted to bring a law, you had ten years, you could have brought the law. Now when the code of conduct will be imposed in 2-4 days, then you are bringing the law…Today you have implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act CAA, what will happen from this? There are elections ahead, that’s why you are doing all these things.”

Dubey insinuated that the abrupt implementation aims to sow seeds of chaos in the nation, potentially impacting the political landscape.

“BJP can do anything to win the elections. They don’t care about the promises made by them, this is all Jumlabazi. They don’t want to address the main issues such as inflation and unemployment in the country,” Dubey said.

Training guns at the BJP, he said, “Do you know the meaning of Ram Rajya? Shri Ram went to exile to fulfill the promises made by him, and you break parties, put people in jail?, talk about Vipaksh mukt bharat? These (implementation of CAA) are all tactics to win the elections, but the people of the country know everything.”

In alignment with Shiv Sena’s (UBT) viewpoint, Samajwadi Party MP ST Hassan characterized the center’s action as a diversionary tactic orchestrated by the BJP.

” This is just a tactic to distract the people. We have no objection to people being given citizenship but why has religion been defined in that. Are Muslims not being persecuted in the countries that has been spoken of in the act. In fact, the Ahmediyas are persecuted in all the three countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh). The government should offer citizenship to all persecuted people. There can be inquiries done on the antecedents of those applying. The CAA is just setting the ground for the NRC where the people will have to prove that they are Indians” ST Hassan said.

DK Shivakumar, Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister, also raised concerns about the timing of the act’s implementation, expressing apprehensions that it could exacerbate communal tensions in the country.

“They brought it after a long time of more than three and a half years. They could have taken a decision earlier. Now is the time for elections, lot of communal issues may start. We want a peaceful country. This is not the right time. Also, it is not needed for this country,” he said.

Atishi, an AAP leader and Delhi Minister, also suspected a political motive behind the timing of the act’s implementation, particularly noting its occurrence just before the elections.

“Just a few days before the Lok Sabha elections, CAA is being brought. What does this show? This shows that Modi govt knows that they haven’t done any work in the last 10 years,” AAP leader Atishi said.

“The youth today is unemployed, there are no homes for the poor, inflation is increasing. Rather than bringing people from the neighbouring countries, why doesn’t he offer employment, provide home to the people of this country?” she said.

On Monday evening, the Union Home Ministry released regulations for enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), coming just days before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections schedule.

Introduced by the Narendra Modi government and ratified by Parliament in 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, such as Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, who fled from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.