SILIGURI/KOLKATA: The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) will be implemented once the pandemic subsides, Union home minister Amit Shah said at a rally in New Jalpaiguri on Thursday. Shah is on his first visit to West Bengal exactly a year after BJP’s drubbing in the state assembly elections.
Dragging the refugee-infiltration issue back into the political discourse ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Shah accused the Trinamool Congress government of allowing infiltration while the Modi government at the Centre was committed to granting recognition to the refugees.
“The Mamata Didi government doesn’t want us to implement CAA. They want infiltration to continue. But we won’t let them pursue their agenda. Let the pandemic be over and we will bring the CAA,” he said.
The home minister accused the state government of trying to divide the Gorkhas, Rajbanshis and Adivasis in north Bengal by allowing infiltration to change the region’s demography.
Shah also raised the issues of infiltration and smuggling while addressing a meeting of BSF personnel at Haridaspur, North 24 Parganas. “It is difficult to prevent infiltration and smuggling without the help of the local administration. I want to ensure that a political environment conducive to the BSF’s functioning is soon created here,” Shah said.
