'Owaisi, Kharge lying on CAA’: Amit Shah blasts Congress, says law won't take anyone's citizenship

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday sought to dispel fears about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), claiming that the statute is not designed to strip anyone of their citizenship. Speaking in Hyderabad, Shah accused All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress seniors Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge of sowing confusion among minorities and creating a false impression that they stand to lose their citizenship due to the law.

"There is no provision in CAA to remove anyone's citizenship," Shah stated, adding that rather than take away citizenship, the law would bestow it. "Owaisi, Kharge, Rahul Gandhi are lying that minorities will lose citizenship due to CAA," he added. His comments followed the central government's notification of the CAA's rules a day prior, marking the formal initiation of the Act's implementation across the nation.

Congress President Kharge the previous day had critiqued the government's timing, deeming it a divisive political stratagem by the Bharatiya Janata Party prior to Lok Sabha elections. Owaisi had voiced his objection to the Act, alleging it was designed to subordinate Muslims to second-class citizens.

"You understand the chronology -- first election season will arrive then CAA rules will come. Our objections to CAA remain the same. CAA is divisive and based on Godse’s thought that wanted to reduce Muslims to second-class citizens," Owaisi wrote on X.

Addressing these allegations, Shah accused Congress of resorting to appeasement politics over the CAA. He stressed that the original enshrining of the Act was to fulfill a promise to refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who had endured religious persecution that they would be accorded Indian citizenship.

"We had promised to bring CAA. Congress had opposed the CAA since Independence while our Constitution makers had promised that the refugees coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who faced persecution there, will be given citizenship. But for the sake of vote bank politics, Congress opposed it," he said in Secunderabad.

"By granting citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and others, Narendra Modi ji has honoured them," he added.

The CAA eases the pathway for non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, who have faced religious discrimination, to become Indian citizens. However, some state governments including West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, have declared they will not implement the Act, which was passed in December 2019.