With just a couple of months left for the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Union Minister Shantanu Thakur has claimed that the government will implement Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) within next 7 days across India. Thakur made the announcement while addressing the booth workers in the West Bengal, recently.I can guarantee that in the next seven days, not just in West Bengal, but the CAA will be implemented across India, Thakur said while speaking in Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas in Bengal.CAA will be implemented within 7 days in India, everything in place, claims Bengal BJP MP & Union Minister Shantanu Thakur pic.twitter.com/jcDvtAPBJ8— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) January 28, 2024Amit Shah declared in December of last year that no one can stop it that is, the central government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party would implement the CAA. His comments were directed at West Bengal Chief Minister and leader of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata Banerjee, who has been adamantly against the CAA.Amit Shah also delivered a scathing speech against Mamata Banerjee during his speech at a large rally at Kolkatas famous Esplanade. He attacked her on issues of infiltration, corruption, political violence, and appeasement and urged people to overthrow her government in Bengal and elect the BJP in the 2026 Assembly elections.Regarding the intended beneficiaries, he had clarified that they had the same right to citizenship as everyone else.The CAA has been at the forefront of widespread demonstrations across India and the Oppositions resolute opposition to it since it was approved by both Houses of Parliament and the President in 2019. It has been in limbo since the Centre has not yet framed the CAAs guidelines or put the statute into effect.What is CAA all aboutThe Indian Parliament enacted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) on December 11, 2019. It modified the Citizenship Act, 1955, granting persecuted religious minorities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, or Christians, who came in India before the end of December 2014 an expedited route to Indian citizenship. These minorities are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Muslims from these nations are not eligible for this under the law. The act drew condemnation from all around the world since it was the first time that Indian law had openly embraced religion as a factor for citizenship.What will happen if CAA is implementedAccording to an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on November 30, 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that CAA will make eligible a class of people who came to India on or before December 31, 2014 due to persecution faced by them in the specified countries on grounds of their religion.
