New Delhi: Under the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act i.e. CAA, citizenship certificates have been issued to the first group. On Wednesday, two months after the implementation of CAA, the Home Secretary gave citizenship certificates to 14 people in Delhi. Whereas about 300 people have been given Indian citizenship. Home Minister Amit Shah described today as historic. It was said that the wait of the people who have been facing religious atrocities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan for decades is over.
Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians who came to India before December 2014 from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are being given citizenship under CAA. For which amendment was made in December 2019. However, it has been implemented even before the announcement of Lok Sabha election dates. After being implemented for two months, the granting of citizenship has started on Wednesday.
In a program organized in Delhi, 14 people were given certificates under CAA, while a total of 300 people were given Indian citizenship. People other than 14 will be given digital certificates. According to the reports received, the largest number of people who have been given citizenship recently are Pakistani Hindus. Bharat Kumar, 24, who received the certificate, said that we came to India from Pakistan 11 years ago, now I have been given citizenship. I am proud to be an Indian. When the Citizenship Act was amended in 2019, it was claimed that NRC could also be implemented after CAA. Due to which there was strong opposition to CAA and NRC across the country. There was a months-long sit-in by Muslim women in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh. Whereas the CAA was opposed by Hindus in Assam claiming that granting citizenship to people who came to Assam from Bangladesh during or after the 1971 war would take away the rights of the original citizens of Assam. While protesting, Muslims demanded that Muslims should also be included in CAA. Recently, when CAA was implemented, the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala announced that they will not allow CAA to be implemented. However, according to experts, states cannot stop the implementation of the CAA. In this way, the implementation of CAA was started amidst opposition from the opposition and now citizenship is also being given.