The Congress-led governments of the past indulged in politics of appeasement by not granting citizenship to refugees from neighbouring countries but allowed "intruders" into India, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said while awarding citizenship to 188 Hindu refugees from Pakistan under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Ahmedabad Sunday. Hailing CAA as an act of giving rights to lakhs of refugees living in India and not to take away citizenship of the minorities, he added that laws are for the people and not the vice-versa. “On the one hand, you allowed intrusion from the borders, you let crores of intruders enter and get citizenship illegally. On the other hand, you told those who follow law, who gave you application (to get citizenship) that there is no such scope in the law. The law is for the people, people are not for the law,” he said. “In the past, those who took refuge in India between 1947 and 2014 were not given this right (citizenship) and justice was not done by the governments led by the Congress and its allies owing to the policy of appeasement. They were persecuted in the neighbouring countries because they were Hindu, Jain, Buddhist or Sikh, but their persecution continued in our country. They longed for justice for three generations, but this policy of appeasement of INDI alliance did not give justice to those refugees. BJP leader (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi provided them justice,” Shah added. Facing the consequences of the Partition, Congress leaders had promised citizenship to Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees from neighbouring countries, the Gandhinagar MP said. “Congress leaders had taken appropriate decision… But as elections arrived, promises made in 1947, 1948, and 1950 by Jawaharlal Nehru and calls made by Mahatma Gandhi were forgotten, because they (Congress) felt that if granted citizenship, it would anger their vote bank. Because of appeasement, lakhs and crores of people were denied citizenship. There cannot be a bigger sin than this," Shah alleged. He said that the journey from 1947 to 2019, and from 2019 to 2024 (CAA was enacted in 2019) will be remembered differently in the history of India. He also asked why the previous governments had not given citizenship to those refugees, who took refuge in India to save their mothers and daughters and religion. “In 2014, we had promised that if the BJP gets the mandate, we will bring CAA. We did bring CAA in 2019. We started providing justice to crores of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs who were deprived of justice,” Shah, who is also the Union Minister of Cooperation, said. He told refugees from all over the country to apply for citizenship without hesitation as this will not affect their job or their properties since they will be granted citizenship with retrospective effect. "The law has no provision of criminal cases. Everyone is pardoned because the government had delayed and not you," he said. Shah also touched upon the subject of religious persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh over the years. “At the time of Partition, 27 per cent of Bangladesh's population was Hindus. Today, it is 7 per cent. Where did they go? They were forcefully converted. Do they not have a right to follow a religion of their choice? If they can’t live with self-respect in the neighboring country and then come to us for refuge, what should we do? We can’t be just a mute spectator,” the Union minister said. Earlier in the day, Shah attended an event of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in the Prahlandnagar area to inaugurate or lay foundation stone of developmental works worth Rs 1,003 crore. Appealing to people to grow trees, Shah praised AMC's resolve to plant 30 lakh trees in 100 days. - With PTI inputs
