Speaking at a rally in West Bengal, Shah said that implementation of the law had to be kept in abeyance “after the country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020”.

“As soon as the COVID vaccination process ends the process of granting citizenship under CAA will begin. All of you [Matua community] will be respected citizens of this country,” he said, addressing a rally in Thakurnagar, the bastion of the Matua community.

There were country wide protests against the CAA after it was passed by parliament in December 2019. The law provides a fast-track to citizenship for non-Muslim refugees who have faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. However, there are fears that , the CAA could be used to disenfranchise Indian Muslims, using it along with the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens.

Shah acknowledged these fears, saying, “As the home minister of this country, I want to assure the minorities of India that none of you will lose citizenship. The CAA is about granting citizenship to refugees, it is not about taking away anyone’s citizenship.”

Reacting to Shah’s assertion about implementing the CAA, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said he should “mind his language” and declared that she will never allow it to be enforced in the state.

“The home minister of the country should be careful about his utterances. We will never allow CAA, NRC or NPR [National Population Register] in Bengal. They can say whatever they want to. They want to destroy Bengal. We will never allow them to do that,” she said.

As of December 2020, the home ministry had said that rules governing the Act are still under preparation, a year after it was passed by parliament and received the President’s assent.

Responding to an RTI query from The Hindu, B.C. Joshi, director (citizenship), Foreigners Division, said “the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 are under preparation”.

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BJP has launched a state-wide ‘Nabanna Chalo’ agitation march to protest against the alleged killing of one of their leaders Manish Shukla on October 4.

The police, in return, restored to water cannons and fired tear gas shells, besides lathicharging the workers to disperse the crowd.

#WATCH Howrah: BJP workers try to break police barricade put in place to stop the Party's 'Nabanna Chalo' agitation against the alleged killing of party workers in the state; police use tear gas to bring the situation under control.#WestBengal pic.twitter.com/ChQdi0NYXj

— ANI (@ANI) October 8, 2020

Several BJP workers, including state vice-president Raju Banerjee, were injured in the clash.

Party workers also set tyres on fire as a mark of protest. Leaders like Arjun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Locket Chatterjee and Mukul Roy were among those present on the spot.

The West Bengal government had earlier cited the Covid-19 pandemic to deny permission for the BJP youth wing’s ‘March to Nabanna’. The Mamata Banerjee-led government said peaceful and democratic rallies within “permissible parameters” of only 100 people would be allowed.

The government also announced that Nabanna will be closed for a two-day sanitisation exercise.

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It is informed that no flights shall operate to Kolkata from Delhi,Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur,Chennai & Ahmedabad from 6th to 19th July 2020 or till further order whichever is earlier. Inconvenience caused is regretted.@AAI_Official @MoCA_GoI @ushapadhee1996 @HardeepSPuri @arvsingh01

— Kolkata Airport (@aaikolairport) July 4, 2020

The temporary restriction on arriving flights to #KolkataAirport from 6 cities viz Delhi, Mumbai,Pune,Chennai, Nagpur & Ahmedabad is on the request of State Govt. to restrict movement from high prevalence cities of #coronavirus cases in order to contain the spread of #COVID19.

— Kolkata Airport (@aaikolairport) July 4, 2020

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier written to the Centre to stop sending flights and trains to coronavirus ‘hotspot’ states.

India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25, after two months due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Scheduled international passenger flights still stands suspended in India till July 31.

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