'CAA Law Latest Example Of Modi's Guarantee', Says Prime Minister Day After Centre Grants Citizenship To First Batch Of Refugees

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (16 May) attacked the INDI Alliance for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which fast-tracks Indian citizenship route for persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh's Lalganj, PM Modi said that Congress and Samajwadi Party spread lies about CAA and tried to push country towards riots.

“The latest example of what Modi’s guarantee means is the CAA law. Just yesterday, the work of granting Indian citizenship to refugees has started under the CAA law. These are the people who have been living in our country as refugees for a long time, these are the people who were victims of the partition of India on the basis of religion,” PM Modi said.

PM Modi was referring to Union Home Ministry granting citizenship certificates to a first batch of refugees on Wednesday (15 May).

Over 350 people received Indian citizenship on Wednesday under the newly notified Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.

While the first set of 14 people received it in the national capital, the rest were granted nationality digitally in other parts of the country, Economic Times reported.

The act, initially passed by Parliament in 2019, had its rules officially notified by the BJP-led central government in March of this year.

The CAA grants citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who fled to India from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 31 December 2014.

"The members of the INDI alliance claim that Modi introduced the CAA, and the day Modi goes, the CAA will also be gone. The people of the country have realised that you engaged in vote bank politics, inciting Hindu-Muslim conflicts while wearing a facade of secularism that concealed your true nature. However, Modi has exposed your reality," PM Modi said at the Lalganj rally.

PM Modi further said that the INDI Alliance members "forced the country to struggle with the flames of communalism for seven decades".

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