Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy, slammed the Union Government claiming that 800 Pakistani Hindus, who had escaped to India and were hoping to get Indian citizenship, have been ‘betrayed’ by the Central government. In a tweet, Swamy said that the Hindus have gone back to Pakistan ‘heartbroken’ due to the inaction of the government on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“What a shame for our BJP Union Government that Hindu victims of human rights violation by Pak Govt, about 800 of those who had escaped to India, hoping to become Indian citizens have been betrayed by non-action of Modi Govt on CAA, and so have gone back heartbroken to Pakistan,” Swamy said in a tweet.
The former minister and six-time MPs criticism came after Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS) – an organization working for the rights of Pakistani minorities in India – reportedly claimed that 800 Hindus, who came to India as a result of religious persecution in Pakistan, returned due to inaction over their citizenship applications.
Will implement CAA the moment pandemic is over: Amit Shah
In December, the Union Home Ministry had informed the Rajya Sabha that 10,635 applications for citizenship were pending with the government. Of these 7,306 were from Pakistan. In 2019, the government clarified its intentions to bring the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to facilitate citizenship of migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 2014.
While CAA, which triggered widespread protests across the country, could not be implemented due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week promised that the Act will be implemented ‘once the COVID-19 pandemic ends’.
“I promise you today that once the corona(virus) pandemic ends, we will enforce it in Bengal,” Shah said in a rally in West Bengal.
