Union Home Minister Amit Shah has blamed the Congress party and other INDI alliance members for the violence during the 2019 protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He said that the law has not taken away the citizenship of any Muslim in the country.

Speaking at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2025, Shah said, “Rahul Gandhi and the opposition propagated throughout the country that Muslims will lose their citizenship due to CAA. It has been two years since CAA has been in force. I challenge Rahul Gandhi to show if any Muslim lost his citizenship. Congress and INDI bloc parties misled people. They were responsible for violence.”

His comments came as protests are happening in some parts of the country over the Waqf Amendment Act.

When asked whether he fears CAA-like protests again, Shah said, “They (the opposition) must have understood something by now.”

The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in 2019, aims to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before 2015 due to religious persecution.

Some people had earlier protested against the law, saying it was unfair to Muslims. However, the home minister has repeated that the law is not against Indian Muslims.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear petitions challenging the CAA on April 15.

Shah also said that only a few Muslim community leaders are opposing the law. He added that the law is meant to help the poor and women within the minority community, but Congress is still protesting against it.

 

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