Amit Shah, India’s Home Minister, said on Saturday that the country’s promise to protect religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh is being fulfilled through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
He told reporters and the audience at Dainik Jagran’s Jagran Sahitya Srijan Samman, an event held for the late editor Narendra Mohan, that the CAA is a historic pledge made by India’s leaders. “India is a nation, not a dharamshala,” Shah told the crowd. “We must offer refuge to those who are persecuted because of their faith, but we must also curb illegal entries.”
Shah called opposition parties spreading “misinformation” about the CAA. He defended the law as a correction of past governance lapses, saying it gives a safe haven to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis who have faced religious persecution since India’s independence. He drew a firm line between refugees—people fleeing religious oppression—and infiltrators who sneak into the country for economic reasons or other motives.
The minister also discussed the rise in the Muslim population in India, citing census figures that show the share of Muslims swelling from 9.8 % in 1951 to 14.2 % in 2011. According to Shah, much of this shift is due to illegal infiltration, not natural population growth. He pointed to a steep drop in minority populations in neighboring countries: Pakistani Hindus now only 1.73 %, Bangladeshi Hindus 7.9 % and Afghan Hindus barely 150 people.
In order to keep elections fair, Shah urged the Election Commission to keep the “Selective Identification of Residents” (SIR) process alive. He said this constitutional duty will help clean voter rolls from fake names. “We are committed to a ‘3D policy’ – Detect, Delete from voter lists and Deport,” Shah said.
Shah also highlighted border states Gujarat and Rajasthan as key points of entry for illegal migrants. He named West Bengal as a hotspot because he blamed “vote‑bank politics” for encouraging infiltration there.
During his address, Shah recalled the deceased editor Narendra Mohan, a veteran journalist who fought censorship during the Emergency and spent 560 days translating the Dainik Jagran front page into Gujarati during a tough period in 2010. The minister said that work helped him improve his Hindi language skills and that Mohan’s legacy reminds the country of the power of language and culture.
The Home Minister reiterated that India will “protect the cultural and democratic fabric” of the nation, encouraging citizens to focus on facts rather than propaganda. He called for a new demographic mission, a team that will study how illegal migration affects social, religious and economic life and will improve border management.
The event, attended by Dainik Jagran editor Sanjay Gupta and other media figures, was scheduled to honor the publisher’s legacy. Shah used the occasion to remind the nation that India’s commitment to hospitality for persecuted minorities remains a key part of its identity while keeping the country’s borders secure.
Source: ianslive
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