Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah, on Sunday, distributed citizenship certificates among 188 refugees under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shah said the CAA is not just to give citizenship to millions of people settled in the country, but to give justice and rights to millions of refugees.

He said due to the appeasement policy of the Congress governments, the people who took refuge in the country from 1947 to 2014 did not get justice. These people had to endure abuse not only in India’s neighbouring countries but also here.

Mr Shah said that these people yearned for justice for three generations but due to the appeasement policy of the Opposition, they did not get justice. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given justice to these lakhs of people.

The Home Minister said that at the time of Independence, India was divided on the basis of religion and at that time there were severe riots. He said crores of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Christians living in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh cannot forget their sufferings.

The Congress government then had promised that people from Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Christian communities coming from neighbouring countries would be given citizenship, but the promise was not kept.

Mr Shah said that crores of people fled and suffered, many lost their families and property, but here in India they did not even get citizenship. He said that the journey from 1947 to 2019 and 2019 to 2024 will always be remembered by the history of this country.

He asked why can’t those from neighbouring countries be given a citizenship? Mr Shah said that on one hand, the opposition gave citizenship to crores of people illegally, although they had infiltrated into India from across the border. Those who had followed the law were told that there is no legal provision for their citizenship.

The Home Minister said that the law is for the people and not people for the law. He said the BJP had promised in 2014 that its government will bring CAA and in 2019 the Modi government brought this law. He said that through this law, crores of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, who did not get justice, started getting justice.

Mr Shah said that this law was passed in 2019 but even after that people were provoked and were told that it would take away the citizenship of Muslims. The Home Minister clarified that there is no provision in this law to take anyone’s citizenship and it is a law to give citizenship.

This law does not take away anyone’s citizenship and it is a law to give citizenship to Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist refugees. Mr Shah said that even today some state governments are misleading people. He appealed to the refugees across the country to feel free to apply for citizenship and this will keep their jobs, houses, etc. intact as before.

He said that when the Partition took place, there were 27 per cent Hindus in Bangladesh, today only nine per cent are left. He asked where did the remaining Hindus go? They were forcibly converted, he said.