Gujarat Minister Harsh Sanghvi presents Indian Citizenship certificates to 40 Pakistani Hindus
23 Aug 2022 11:41:15
Ahmedabad, August 23: Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi, handed over citizenship certificates to many Pakistani Hindu refugees who came to Ahmedabad years ago and applied for Indian citizenship.
Sanghavi said, “I welcome you all as brothers and sisters of this big country… hope like all of us here, you too will join the development motto, and we promise you all that we will extend support to you all for your growth and progress.”
A woman, Valbhai Namodi told the minister how she had been waiting for this moment for years and finally, her patience paid off.
In December 2019, the BJP govt amended Citizenship Act, which gives fast-track citizenship to persecuted minorities of the 3 neighbouring Islamic states of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. After the passage of Act, Muslim mobs went on a rampage, rioting and causing arson and violence throughout the country.
Islamists came out of the woodwork to claim that Muslims were being discriminated against since the CAA provided fast-track citizenship to only persecuted minorities of Islamic nations but not Muslims.
Opposition parties criticized the amendments in the Citizenship Act. They tried to propagate that CAA, combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), aims to target minorities living in India, especially the Muslim community. Since its enactment in December 2019, there were large scale protests across the country.
The Gujarat minister took to Twitter to inform about it. The BJP leader Dhaval Patel stated that under the BJP regime in Gujarat, up to now, 1032 Hindu refugees have obtained citizenship in the state.
Notably, prior to this, Sanghavi had, on August 12, also handed over citizenship certificates to 24 Pakistani Hindus who were living in the state’s Rajkot district.
Sanghavi said, “I welcome you all as brothers and sisters of this big country… hope like all of us here, you too will join the development motto, and we promise you all that we will extend support to you all for your growth and progress.”
A woman, Valbhai Namodi told the minister how she had been waiting for this moment for years and finally, her patience paid off.
Another woman studying to make a career aviation sector, thanked the Indian government for the citizenship. Shankarchand told the minister, “My family was waiting for Indian citizenship for the last 16 years.
Islamists came out of the woodwork to claim that Muslims were being discriminated against since the CAA provided fast-track citizenship to only persecuted minorities of Islamic nations but not Muslims.
Opposition parties criticized the amendments in the Citizenship Act. They tried to propagate that CAA, combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), aims to target minorities living in India, especially the Muslim community. Since its enactment in December 2019, there were large scale protests across the country.