Rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 will be notified “much before” the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, a senior government functionary said on Tuesday (2 January) as reported by The New Indian Express.

Under the CAA brought in by the Narendra Modi government, Indian nationality will be granted to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who had come to India till 31 December 2014.

There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and received presidential assent subsequently.

“We are going to issue the rules for the CAA soon. Once the rules are issued, the law can be implemented, and those eligible can be granted Indian citizenship,” the functionary said.

Delayed by more than four years, rules for the CAA are a must for its implementation.

Asked whether the rules will be notified before the announcement of the next Lok Sabha elections that are likely to be held in April-May, the functionary said, “Yes, much before that.”

“The rules are ready and the online portal is also in place, and the entire process will be online. The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No document will be sought from the applicants,” the functionary said.

On 27 December, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that no one can stop the implementation of the CAA as it is the law of the land and accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading people on the issue.

Addressing a party meeting in Kolkata, Shah said it was the BJP’s commitment to implement the CAA. The TMC, led by Mamata Banerjee, has been opposing the CAA.

The promise of implementing the controversial CAA was a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in West Bengal.

The saffron party’s leaders consider it a plausible factor that led to the rise of the BJP in the state.