December 7, 2020 6:00:45 am
BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy at the Ambedkar statue in Kolkata on Sunday. (Photo Express)
BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy have stated that the implementation process of the amended citizenship law will begin in January or February 2021.
“Probably starting in January, the BJP government will start the process of granting citizenship to all people who are refugees. These people come from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan after facing religious persecution. They have sought refuge in our country. The BJP government will grant citizenship to all such people. The Center has honest intentions to grant citizenship to persecuted refugees who have come to India from neighboring countries, ”Vijayvargiya, the Bengal party observer, told the media on the sidelines of a BJP event in North 24 district. Parganas on Saturday.
On Sunday, Roy, the party’s national vice chairman, raised the matter at a protest meeting on Red Road here. “Implementation of CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act] it will start from January to February. I am confident that in the next Assembly elections the BJP will come to power with more than 200 seats. You won’t be able to see the TMC even through a microscope, ”he added.
Reassuring the Matuas
Although stirring the cauldron of the CAA seems risky at a time of protests by farmers, the BJP wants to assure the Matua community that it intends to grant them citizenship rights under the new law. The Matuas play a decisive role in at least 30-40 seats in the Assembly, and favored the BJP in the LS polls of 2019. To make up for the minority vote that mostly remained with the TMC – some went to Congress – the BJP aims to consolidate their tribal and matua vows.
Last month, Union Interior Minister Amit Shah said during his visit to the state that the implementation of the CAA was only a matter of time. BJP National Chairman JP Nadda had made similar comments the previous month. The BJP is eager to retain the votes of the sizeable Matua community, the majority of whose members are refugees from Bangladesh.
The community voted for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, helping the Saffron party to record its best performance in Bengal. A section of the state leadership of the BJP fears that delaying the implementation of the new citizenship law could turn the community against it. Last month, BJP MP Santanu Thakur said that he would write to Shah to ask him to quickly implement the law in Bengal to ensure that the Matuas obtain citizenship rights. Thakur is a member of the community.
The Matuas have been migrating to West Bengal since the 1950s, mainly due to religious persecution. The community, with an estimated population of three million in the state, influences at least four Lok Sabha seats and 30-40 Assembly seats in the Nadia, North and South districts of 24 Parganas.
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