West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said that when he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament, the latter suggested that rules for Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) could be framed once the vaccination drive for the Covid-19 precautionary dose is over. The CAA seeks to fast-track citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This is not the first time the Bengal BJP has spoken about implementing CAA, which Parliament passed in December 2019. Claiming that the party had a “track record of keeping its promises”, Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar on July 6 said the CAA would be implemented before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.“BJP has a track record of keeping its promises. We had promised to build the Ram Mandir; we have done it. CAA is our goal, and we will achieve it. It will be implemented before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” Majumdar told reporters. A month earlier, on June 18, Bengal BJP MLA Asim Sarkar called for the implementation of CAA, expressing concern that, if not done, the party’s support among refugees in the state will get eroded. “We are hopeful that CAA will be implemented before the next Lok Sabha polls. If it is not implemented, it will hurt the party's support base among the refugees.” He added, “If anyone is serious about the cause of the refugees, it is the BJP; other parties have opposed the CAA. I won't be able to seek votes for the party in those areas (where refugees have settled) next time if it's not implemented.” Sarkar is the legislator from Haringhta, an area dominated by Matuas who make up a large chunk of the state’s Scheduled Caste population. The BJP’s promise of citizenship to the Matuas, originally from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), was one of the reasons they swung behind the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Sarkar added that he had written to Amit Shah explaining the "consequences" if CAA was not implemented. Amit Shah himself has said a number of times that CAA will be implemented once the Covid-19 situation is under control. Responding to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s statement that the BJP “was using it (CAA) to fool the masses”, Shah said in Siliguri on May 5, “'The TMC is spreading rumours about CAA, that it will not be implemented. I want to clearly say that the CAA will be implemented as soon as the corona wave ends.” During the 2021 Assembly election campaign too, the Union home minister made the same promise of implementing CAA after Covid-19 was over. Not only Bengal, the CAA issue also found space in Assam last year during the Assembly polls. Incumbent CM Himanta Biswa Sarma told The Indian Express after the party’s victory, “The CAA is a legislation passed by Parliament and the Centre has to frame rules for it. We will not be able to say anything unless we have the rules. But I strongly feel that India must protect its genuine refugees.” Ahead of the Assam polls, state BJP chief Ranjeet Kumar Dass said the party would implement CAA if it returned to power. On March 23, 2021, on the campaign trail after releasing the party’s manifesto, BJP president JP Nadda said CAA would be implemented “in time”. (With inputs from PTI)
