The Narendra Modi-led government's move to notify the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is against the country, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged on Monday and claimed people will respond to it in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
In a long post in Hindi on X, Kejriwal also alleged that implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, is "dirty politics" of the BJP to make poor people from neighbouring countries its vote bank in India.
The Centre on Monday announced implementation of CAA, paving the way for granting citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The rules were notified days ahead of the expected announcement of the Lok Sabha elections. With this, the Narendra Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -- Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians -- from the three countries.
Kejriwal said on X, "After ruling the country for 10 years, the Modi government has brought CAA ahead of the (Lok Sabha) elections. At a time when the poor and middle class are groaning due to inflation and unemployed youth are struggling from door to door for employment, instead of solving those real issues, these people have brought CAA." The AAP chief said the BJP is saying that minorities from neighbouring countries will be given Indian citizenship.
"It means they want to bring people from neighbouring states (countries) to India and settle them. Why? To create their vote bank," Kejriwal claimed.
He said the CAA was strongly opposed, especially in Assam and the entire northeast India, by people who are "victims of migration from Bangladesh and whose language and culture are in danger".
The BJP has betrayed the people of Assam and the northeastern states, he claimed.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 and subsequently got the president's assent but there were protests in several parts of the country against it. Many opposition parties spoke out against the law, calling it "discriminatory".
The law could not come into effect as the rules had not been notified till now.