India offers citizenship to 3 minorities
India’s citizenship policy towards migrants from Bangladesh is set to remain a politically sensitive issue, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah promising citizenship for Hindu, Sikh and Jain refugees while separately pledging tougher action against people he described as illegal immigrants in West Bengal.
Speaking in Siliguri at an exhibition on India’s three new criminal laws, Shah said the Union Home Ministry had delegated powers to eight district collectors in West Bengal to process and finalise citizenship applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“All Hindu, Sikh and Jain refugees who were forced to flee Bangladesh will certainly be granted Indian citizenship here, with dignity,” Shah said.
Under the CAA, eligible Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014 have a pathway to Indian citizenship.
Shah’s remarks came as questions over communal identity, citizenship and migration continue to feature prominently in political discourse in West Bengal, which shares a long border with Bangladesh.
The BJP has repeatedly made the CAA and alleged illegal immigration key political issues in the state.
Alongside his comments on refugees, Shah outlined a separate approach towards those the government considers to be illegal immigrants, describing it as a “detect, delete and deport” policy.
“I want to once again promise the people of Bengal that every single infiltrator will be identified and removed from West Bengal,” he said.
Shah also criticised former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her opposition to the CAA.
“Mamata Didi, you did not accept it, but your government is gone and you are gone too. Now there is a Bharatiya Janata Party government,” he said.
The comments are likely to add to the political debate in West Bengal over citizenship, the treatment of refugees, communal concerns, border management and illegal immigration.
Shah made the remarks during his visit to Siliguri to address an exhibition focusing on India’s three new criminal laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA).
The Statesman reported Shah’s remarks.
