'Neither Article 370 Will Come, Nor CAA Be Repealed': Shah Says Process Of Giving Citizenship To Begin This Month

Amit Shah said as long as there is even a single MP of BJP in Parliament, Article 370 cannot come back and CAA cannot be abolished.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the process of giving citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will begin this month.

Speaking to News18 Network in an exclusive interview, Amit Shah hit out at the opposition saying that neither the CAA will be repealed, nor Article 370 will come back.

Reacting to a question on some opposition leaders claiming that CAA will be repealed, Shah said, "Neither will they come to power nor will Article 370 come back. Neither will they come to power nor will CAA be repealed. They also know this."

"As long as there is even a single MP of Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament, Article 370 cannot come back, CAA cannot be abolished. Now Article 370 has become history, and CAA has become a reality," Shah said.

The Union Minister said the applications under CAA have started to come in and the process of giving citizenship will start before the last phase.

"Applications have started to come in. Scrutiny is happening according to the rules. And I think before the elections, before the last phase, the process of giving citizenship will start," he said.

He further said that the implementation of CAA was delayed due to Covid and added that his party believes that CAA should be implemented first.

Amit Shah also attacked the Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal government over infiltration saying the Bengal CM sees infiltrators as a vote bank. He said that the citizenship is a central subject and the state government has nothing to do with it.

"They (Bengal government) do not know that citizenship is a central subject and the state government has nothing to do with it. Maybe they know but they say this to mislead the minorities," he added. 

Speaking on the Uniform Civil Code, Shah said UCC is the mandate of the Constitution and added that the right time has come for its implementation.

"I think the right time has come. And we are not saying this today. Before our party was formed, it was in the manifesto that there should not be any religious laws in the country, there should be uniform civil code. If this a secular country, how can there be laws on the basis of religion? There should not be," he added.