Around 100 Hindu refugees who have come to India from Pakistan and settled in Gujarat on Thursday thanked the Union government for deciding to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
“This (CAA) is an Act to provide citizenship to victims like you. It is not an objective of this Act to snatch away citizenship of anyone. Under this Act, refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan following Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Christian and Parsi religions are entitled to get citizenship. But there is no provision to take away citizenship of anyone. This law is only to help victims,” MoS Home Harsh Sanghavi at Swarnim Sankul II in Gandhinagar.
He was addressing a gathering of people who who had either received citizenship of India or were expected to get it under the newly-enforced CAA. He added that members of many parties might not be able to understand the sufferings of refugees. He asked people to reach out to his office or the office of the state director general of police (DGP) if they need help in fulfilling the requirements under the CAA.
DGP Vikas Sahay, who was also present on the occasion along with Home Secretary Nipuna Torwane, said that the entire system will work to ensure that the law gets implemented in Gujarat.
Some refugees who were present at the function included Dilip Panjwani and his wife Sapna from Vadodara.
Dilip (42) said they came to India from Sindh on tourist visa in 2006 and then stayed back. He added that they are facing a criminal case for preparing documents like PAN card and driving license. “While I spent two months in jail, my wife was in jail for a month… We welcome this law. But we also want some provision under which people who are facing criminal case are granted pardon.”
Sapna (32) added, “We got those documents made to get our children admitted to school. We have not misused the documents anywhere else. We came to India because we were facing a lot of difficulties in Pakistan.”
