UP's Deputy CM welcomes Amit Shah's decision to implement CAA ahead of Lok Sabha Polls

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 10 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak on Saturday welcomed Home Minister Amit Shah's decision to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) ahead of Lok Sabha Polls and said that Indian citizen doesn't need to worry about it.
"This is a good step and we welcome the decision. Citizens of India do not need to worry, CAA-NRC is for those who are living here illegally," said Brajesh Pathak.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed by the Parliament in December 2019, will be notified and implemented before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
"CAA is an Act of the country, it will definitely be notified. It will be notified before the polls. CAA will be implemented by the polls, and there should be no confusion around it," Shah said speaking at the ET Now-Global Business summit here in the national capital.
"CAA was a promise of the Congress government. When the country was divided and the minorities were persecuted in those countries, Congress assured the refugees that they were welcome in India and that they would be provided with Indian citizenship. Now they are backtracking," Shah said.
He said in categorical terms that CAA was brought in to provide citizenship and not to take away anyone's citizenship. "Minorities in our country, and specially our Muslim community, are being provoked. CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship because there is no provision in the Act. CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan."
The CAA, introduced by the Narendra Modi government, aims to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014. (ANI)