New Delhi:

Union Home Minister Amit Shah stressed that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) does not target Muslims and accused the opposition parties of resorting to “politics of lies”. “I have spoken at least 41 times on different platforms on the CAA, detailing that the minorities in the country need not be afraid as it does not provide for taking back the rights of any citizen,” Mr Shah told news agency ANI in an interview. .

He said the CAA aims to provide citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim immigrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and those from Bangladesh who arrived in India before December 31, 2014 Christians in China, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said Muslims had the right to apply for citizenship in India under the constitution, but the law was targeted at persecuted minorities in those countries.

Asked whether the government would reconsider its decision to implement the CAA if protests started, Mr Shah said, “The CAA will never be revoked.”

The home minister lashed out at opposition parties over his decision to implement the law. Asked about the Congress leaders’ remarks that they would withdraw the CAA after coming to power, he said: “Even the INDI alliance knows it will not come to power. The CAA is led by the BJP and Narendra Modi government.” “It has been brought in. Repealing it is not possible. We will spread awareness across the country so that those who want to repeal it cannot get a seat,” Mr Shah said.

He dismissed criticism that the CAA was “unconstitutional”. “This law does not violate Article 14. There is a clear and reasonable classification here. This is a law for those who stayed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh due to Partition and faced religious persecution and decided to come to India, said the Union Minister.

Responding to the opposition’s attack on the timing of the implementation of the laws, he said: “All opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee or Arvind Kejriwal, are addicted to jhooth ki rajneeti (politics of lies), so the issue of timing does not exist. The BJP in its 2019 manifesto clearly stated that it will introduce CAA and provide Indian citizenship to refugees (from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan). The BJP has a clear agenda, as per On this promise, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill passed both the House and Senate in the 2019 Parliament session. It was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The BJP had made it clear long before the party gained a mandate in the polls agenda.”

Notifying the rules was just a formality and there was no question of timing or political gain or loss, Shah said. “Now, the opposition hopes to consolidate their vote bank through the politics of appeasement,” he said.

The home minister said the opposition had raised questions about the 2016 surgical strikes and the removal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “So shouldn’t we take stringent measures to fight terrorism? We have been saying since 1950 that we will revoke Article 370,” he said.

“You cannot look at this law in isolation. On August 15, 1947, our country was bifurcated into three parts. That is the context. The RSS and the RSS have always been against partition. We never wanted the country to be divided on the basis of religion ,” He said. “So when the country is divided on religion, minorities are facing persecution, they are being converted, women from the minority are being tortured and coming to India. They come to our sanctuaries; don’t they have the right to be helped?” Our citizenship? Even Congress leaders in their speeches during Partition said that due to the widespread bloodshed, these minorities should stay where they are and they will be welcomed later in our country. Then they Start doing vote bank politics to achieve appeasement,” he said.

Hitting back at the Trinamool Congress chief’s claim that the CAA will strip away citizenship to minorities, Mr Shah said: “I request Mamata ji, there are several platforms for political activities but please do not harm Bengali Hindus from Bangladesh .I have publicly asked her to show one such clause which provides for stripping citizenship of any Indian. Her aim is to create divisions between Hindus and Muslims to consolidate the vote bank,” Mr Shah said.