Hyderabad: As soon the Narendra Modi-led Centre notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, a wave of divisive politics swept through Opposition parties, ranging from AIMIM to Samajwadi Party, Congress to TMC. While the Congress party questioned the timing of the move, AIMIM's Owaisi called the notification 'divisive.  Taking to Twitter, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is divisive and based on Godse’s thought that it "wanted to reduce Muslims to second-class citizens". 

Reacting to the Centre notifying the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the Hyderabad MP alleged along with NPR-NRC, that CAA is meant to only target Muslims and it serves no other purpose. "Understand the chronology. First, the election season will come, and next will be the CAA rules. Indians who came out on the streets to oppose CAA NPR NRC will have no choice but to oppose it again," Owaisi said in a post on 'X', while stating that his objections to CAA remain the same.

“Give asylum to anyone who is persecuted but citizenship must not be based on religion or nationality. The govt should explain why it kept these rules pending for five years & why it’s implementing them now. Along with NPR-NRC, CAA is meant to only target Muslims, it serves no other purpose. Indians who came out on the streets to oppose CAA NPR NRC will have no choice but to oppose it again”, he added further. 

Echoing similar remarks, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav also questioned the aim behind the move asking when the citizens of the country are forced to go out for livelihood, what will happen by bringing 'citizenship law' for others.

"When the citizens of the country are forced to go out for livelihood, what will happen by bringing 'citizenship law' for others? The public has now understood the BJP's game of politics of distraction. The BJP government should explain why lakhs of citizens gave up their citizenship of the country during their 10 years of rule," he posted on X in Hindi.

Questioning the timing of the move, Congress' Jairam Ramesh said,"“It has taken four years and three months for the Modi Government to notify the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed by the Parliament in December 2019. The Prime Minister claims that his Government works in a business-like and time-bound manner. The time taken to notify the rules for the CAA is yet another demonstration of the Prime Minister’s blatant lies."  

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, said she would fiercely oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) if she found it to be discriminatory against groups of people living in India and if it curtailed their existing citizenship rights in any manner. Speaking at a hurriedly convened press conference from the state secretariat, Nabanna, barely minutes before the CAA rules were officially notified by the Centre, Banerjee said this was her “primary response” based on media reports that the announcement was likely to be made soon.

Banerjee stated she would offer her detailed opinion on CAA on Tuesday after thoroughly going through the notification and the finalised rules.

She asked, “Why do this only days before the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to be announced? Why did the Centre have to wait for four years to notify the law after it was passed in Parliament? The Centre should have published the notification "before leaking it to the press... Why wait for the sundown? This, after all, is not freedom at midnight", Banerjee said.

Stating that people living in India already enjoyed guaranteed rights to education, property ownership and electing public representatives, Banerjee said she apprehended that the CAA could be used as a possible precursor to implementing NRC across the nation.

“We will oppose NRC implementation at all costs. I am only worried as to whether the new CAA rules would make the previous entitlements of our citizens invalid. Will the documents they hold lose value now?” the TMC chief said.

The Centre on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, a move that comes four years after the contentious law was passed and paves the way for citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.