W.B. BJP hails Home Ministry’s order on minorities from neighbouring countries

Several leaders from the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have welcomed the Union Home Ministry’s Immigration and Foreigners Order, 2025, that provides an exception to minorities belonging to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who were compelled to seek shelter in India on or before December 31, 2024. The earlier date for such an exception was December 31, 2014.

West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the order and took to social media saying, “Historic decision to extend the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) from 2014 to 2024 has given new hope to countless families torn apart by religious persecution.”

Another BJP leader and Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shantanu Thakur, thanked both the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister.

No reference to CAA

The order, however, does not make any reference to the CAA passed in 2019, which came into force last year. The CAA makes provision for citizenship for persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring countries who came to India on or before December 31, 2014. The new order by the Union Home Ministry effectively pushes the date to December 31, 2024.

The development comes before Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, both of which share borders with Bangladesh. The BJP leadership in both the States as well as at the Centre are raising the issue of “illegal infiltration” as a poll plank.

The Trinamool Congress, which has opposed the CAA, did not see “any merit in the development”. Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said through CAA, NRC ( National Register of Citizens), and SIR ( Special Intensive Revision), the BJP is actually trying to confuse people, and this strategy will not succeed.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA from English Bazar in Malda district, Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury, on Wednesday said that she would not allow the State Assembly election to be conducted if the SIR is not held in West Bengal.

“Our supporters will lay siege before the office of Election Commission if SIR is not held in West Bengal,” she said.