Kolkata, January 29: Union Minister Shantanu Thakur declared on Monday that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) would be implemented nationwide within a week. Thakur, a BJP MP from Bongaon, which is predominantly inhabited by the Matua community in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, made this announcement during an interview with a news channel.
During the interview, Thakur, who is also a leader of the Matua community, expressed confidence in the swift implementation of the controversial legislation within seven days. The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government in 2019, aims to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, who entered India before December 31, 2014.
“The CAA will be implemented very soon. It will be implemented within seven days. This is my guarantee,” asserted Thakur, who has been consistently claiming that the CAA would be put into effect before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Matua community, a significant portion of the state’s Scheduled Caste population, migrated to West Bengal since the 1950s due to religious persecution in erstwhile East Pakistan, later becoming Bangladesh. Political parties in West Bengal have actively sought the support of the Matuas since the 1990s, considering them a crucial voting bloc similar to minorities due to their substantial population and tendency to vote collectively.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), ruling in the state, strongly opposed the CAA, deeming it divisive. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh responded to Thakur’s statement, saying, “Our party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have clearly said that CAA won’t be implemented in West Bengal. The BJP leaders are attempting political gimmickry by making such false promises before the Lok Sabha elections.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had previously reiterated the inevitability of implementing the CAA as the law of the land. The BJP had highlighted the promise of implementing the controversial CAA as a major electoral platform in previous Lok Sabha and assembly polls in West Bengal, considering it played a pivotal role in the party’s rise in the state.
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