A day after the Centre notified rules for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva on Tuesday honoured Hindu refugees from Pakistan, and Sikh and Hindu refugees from Afghanistan at an event here.

They celebrated the day by applying gulal colours to each other and burning crackers. The refugees also handed a letter to Sachdeva, expressing their gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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On the occasion, the Delhi BJP president said: “This is an emotional moment, and when this law was passed in Parliament, it was decided that all the legal barriers that were coming in the way of refugees, have now been eliminated.”

In a significant step ahead of the announcement of poll schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Centre on Monday notified rules for the implementation of CAA, paving the way for granting of citizenship to people of certain faiths facing persecution in neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim 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.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was an integral part of the BJP’s 2019 manifesto.