Addressing the media on Monday, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa said that he believes that Citizenship Amendment Act is a humanitarian step towards ensuring welfare to the minorities who had to flee from the neighboring countries because of religious persecution. As quoted by ANI, he said, “The CAA is a humanitarian Act, it gives life to those minorities who came to our country. Nobody will be sent out from the 130 crores Indians. Congress and communists are just creating panic in the people.”
Interestingly, Karnataka is one of the very few states which have extended its support to the BJP-led Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. Explaining the specifics of the Act, he said that CAA aims to give citizenship and not take it away from any person. Speaking further, he said that the opposition parties are unnecessarily creating a controversy over the legislation.
Informing about the applications regarding Citizenship, he said that none of the people have applied for citizenship in Bangladesh or Pakistan. While many of them have applied for Indian citizenship. In this regard, the government has already given citizenship to more than 600 people,
Furthermore, he congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for coming out with CAA. He also added that “No one was scared when the discussion on the CAA was underway in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The CAA gives citizenship, it will not snatch the citizenship of anyone. I congratulate our Prime Minister and Home Minister for taking such a bold decision.”
The Citizenship Act grants Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
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