New Delhi [India], Dec 9 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is duty-bound to implement every act and provision of the Constitution of India, said BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Monday, while responding to her opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
"As far as Mamata Banerjee is concerned, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will be passed by the two Houses of Parliament. It will become an Act. As the Chief Minister of a state, she is duty-bound to implement every act and provision of the Constitution," Madhav told here.
He said that if Banerjee refuses to implement it, "the government will decide what needs to be done."
"The arguments of the opposition parties about the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill are misplacing, misleading and distorting. This Bill is not about excluding anybody. It is about including people belonging to minority communities, who have come to India in the last seven decades," said Madhav.
"It is a historical fact that post-partition and around the time of the creation of Bangladesh, a large number of people from minority communities like Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Cristian, etc., migrated to India. On both occasions, we have given a solemn commitment to absorb all of them," he added.
Madhav said that the Bill is not to exclude but include the minorities into the country.
"What we are doing is fulfilling the unfinished agenda of previous governments. This Bill is only for persecuted minorities from those countries. They can come and claim citizenship. We are not going to identify anybody else," he said.
The BJP leader said that the people from minority communities in these countries, who have come to India and have been living here for the past five years, can now claim citizenship of the country.
"We are open to providing refugee status to many people. There are refugees from Sri Lanka, Pakistan -- the Balochs. However, this is a different case," he said.
As far as the apprehensions of some of the northeastern states are concerned, he said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has held extensive deliberation with all the groups in the region.
"He (Shah) spent more than 100 hours with them and has assured them that this Bill will not have any adverse impact on their demography, culture, language, traditions or culture," added Madhav.
( With inputs from ANI )