Indian Citizenship Certificates Given To 157 Migrants From Pakistan, Bangladesh Under CAA In Gujarat And Odisha

(MENAFN- Live Mint) Gujarat's Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi on Thursday granted Indian citizenship certificates to 122 migrants from Pakistan, while Odisha's Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi distributed certificates to 35 people from Bangladesh under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), in Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar, respectively.

In Gujarat, 73 others were handed over certificates as they had applied for it at the Ahmedabad district collector's office, according to PTI citing officials.

Sanghavi expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for implementing the CAA, emphasising that minorities in Pakistan and neighboring countries have long faced hardships and threats to their security.

He stated that the updated citizenship rules were designed to grant fair recognition to those who had sought shelter in India.

“Muskuraiye, aap ab Bhaarat ke nagrik hain (Smile, you are now citizens of India),” he told the recipients, some of whom shared their emotions during the event.

Sanghavi stated,“Today, 195 Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain refugees from Pakistan were granted Indian citizenship. Many of them had struggled for decades, some since the 1950s, facing persecution and lengthy legal battles. They endured hardships and a lack of support, living in fear. They express gratitude to Prime Minister Modi, noting that the CAA has enabled these 195 individuals to finally receive Indian citizenship."

Dr. Maheshkumar Purohit, a gynecologist who came to India in 1956, spoke about his decades-long path to citizenship, the report noted. He discovered he was not officially recognised as an Indian citizen only when applying for a passport. After many attempts, he finally secured citizenship, and under the CAA in April 2025, received a passport that enabled him to visit his daughter abroad. He described the moment as profoundly emotional and long overdue.

Engineer Pooja Abhimanyu said that, for her, the certificate represented far more than just an official document.

Indian citizenship distributed in Odisha

Meanwhile, the Odisha Census Directorate and the Union Home Ministry organised a special event where Majhi stated India's "traditional values of humanity and asylum" had been revived through the process which PM Modi initiated, adding,“This holy legislation has provided a ray of hope and reassurance to minorities persecuted for years.”

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Majhi told reporters,“Today, for the first time in Odisha, based on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, 35 people living in Nabarangpur district of Odisha were granted citizenship certificates... These people migrated from Bangladesh were provided citizenship certificates.”

Majhi stated that the 35 people were now citizens of India and expressed that they were part of the country's future. He emphasised that their safety, respect, and progress were the responsibility and duty of the state, and he welcomed them as citizens. Majhi also remarked that while people of any other religion facing persecution abroad could find refuge in many countries, Hindus persecuted elsewhere had no place to turn except India.

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He questioned where they would go if India did not have laws to protect them.

Bapin Mirda, who arrived from Bangladesh in 1998 and received Indian citizenship on Thursday, stated that the certificate has provided him with a new sense of identity.

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