Government starts giving citizenship under CAA, 300 get in first lot

NEW DELHI: Distribution of citizenship certificates under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) kicked off on Wednesday with the Centre handing over documents to over 300 people across the country, in an emphatic signal of its intent to go ahead with the law that was enacted in the face of heavy resistance to open an accelerated pathway for Indian citizenship to members of religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India by 2014 to escape religious persecution.
While home secretary A K Bhalla handed over citizenship certificates to 14 applicants in New Delhi, others got the much-awaited document digitally.
Home minister Amit Shah lauded the development and termed it "historic", an assertion which was seen also as a political statement in the context of continuing resistance to CAA from opposition parties like CPM, Trinamool Congress and DMK which have vowed not to implement the law for not keeping Muslims within its purview.
"Modi's guarantee... guarantee of fulfilment of promise. Today is a very historic day. Today, the wait of decades has ended and through CAA, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian brothers and sisters who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious persecution have started getting Indian citizenship. Today, Narendra Modi ji has fulfilled the promise made at the time of independence. I express my gratitude to Modi ji for giving justice," Shah said in a social media post.