On Monday, August 22, Harsh Sanghavi, Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home, handed over citizenship certificates to several Pakistani Hindu refugees who had come to Ahmedabad years ago and had applied for Indian citizenship.
The Gujarat minister took to Twitter to inform the same.
“जहाँ डाल डाल पर सोने की
— Harsh Sanghavi (@sanghaviharsh) August 22, 2022
चिड़िया करती है बसेरा
वो भारत देश है मेरा”
अहमदाबाद जिले में किसी कारणवश कई वर्षो पूर्व स्थानांतरित हुए भारतीय समुदाय के नागरिकों को आज भारत का “नागरिकता पत्र” प्रदान किया गया।
हम सभी भारतवासी एक है, और हमारी एकता ही हमारी शक्ति है। pic.twitter.com/ZIoBujMzCv
Tweeting about the same, BJP leader Dhaval Patel stated that under the BJP regime in Gujarat, up to now, 1032 Hindu refugees have obtained citizenship in the state.
Till now 1032 people have got citizenship in Gujarat under current regime.
— Dhaval Patel (@dhaval241086) August 22, 2022
(VC: @dave_janak )
pic.twitter.com/YpZQvWUUQh
Notably, prior to this, Sanghavi on August 12, 2022, had also handed over citizenship certificates to 24 Pakistani Hindus who were living in the state’s Rajkot district.
Addressing all 24 individuals, 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.”
The refugees had expressed their gratitude to Sanghvi on the occasion. A teary-eyed woman named Valbhai Namodi told the minister how she had been waiting for this moment for years and finally, her patience paid off.
Kesarben Shankarchand, another woman studying to make a career in the aviation sector, thanked the Indian government for citizenship. Shankarchand told the minister, “My family was waiting for Indian citizenship for the last 16 years.
Describing it as the happiest moment of her life, Kesarbhai Sankalchand, the 22-year-old Pakistani Hindu said, “Now I will be able to complete my graduation and fulfil our dreams in my country India.”
CAA and Delhi Riots
in December 2019, the BJP government amended the Citizenship Act, which gives fast-track citizenship to persecuted minorities of the three neighbouring Islamic states of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. After the passage of the 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 the Muslims were being discriminated against since the CAA provided fast-track citizenship to only persecuted minorities of Islamic nations but not Muslims. Adding to that, Muslim leader Asadduddin Owaisi went as far as to demand proof that minorities were persecuted in Pakistan.
Opposition parties and several groups 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. Sit-in protests at Shaheen Bagh attracted a lot of attention, especially because of the anti-India speeches given by the speakers at the site.
In the background of these protests, there was an alleged larger conspiracy to cause unrest in the Indian state that resulted in riots in February 2020. As a result, several arrests were made by investigation agencies, including that of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Tahir Hussain and several others. As per reports, Police registered over 700 cases connected to the riots and detained or arrested 3,400 people by the end of March 2020. A detailed report on the anti-Hindu Delhi Riots by OpIndia can be read here.
