Citizenship within 100 days of CAB House nod: BJP general secretary

KOLKATA: After the setback in the two “border” assembly seats — Uttar Dinajpur’s Kaliaganj and Nadia’s Karimpur — in the recently held assembly bypolls, BJP is taking efforts to bring down the six-year waiting period for the non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh and other countries so that they don’t have to live in uncertainty before they are given naturalisation certificate under the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya indicated on Saturday that the Centre will start providing citizenship to refugees within 100 days of CAB being passed in Parliament. “The government will start providing citizenship to these refugees within 100 days from that,” Vijayvargiya said at a BJP gathering at Dum Dum on Saturday.
Vijarvargiya’s comment comes days after Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee pointed to the uncertainty of the refugees because of CAB and NRC. “BJP wants to give you citizenship when you are already citizens. Under CAB, you will lose your citizenship and have to wait for six years before they (Centre) gives you citizenship, if at all,” the CM had said.
Such issues on NRC and CAB came up during the primary review of the three assembly bypoll results in the state BJP executive meeting on Saturday. The party has assigned its three state general secretaries to reach out to Kaliaganj, Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur and try to identify what went wrong with the election craft. They have been asked to submit a comprehensive report along with suggestions for course correction.
Bengal BJP president and former Kharagpur MLA Dilip Ghosh, however, gave priority to “Trinamool-terror” and spreading of “misinformation” in Kharagpur over the confusion on NRC.