CHENNAI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said states cannot refuse to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as their refusal “is not legal and is against the Constitution.”Participating in a discussion here on the CAA organised by the Chennai Citizens’ Forum and New India Forum, the minister said, “Political parties can make a political statement by passing resolutions against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. But, states cannot refuse to implement the CAA.”She said there was an attempt by the opposition to distort the truth and create fear about the CAA.“Every question that the opposition raised in Parliament about the CAA was answered. But, despite that, they are hell-bent on politicising it outside the House,” Sitharaman said.“The CAA is to offer citizenship and not to deny citizenship to anyone. It is to give citizenship to some groups of people, who did not get it earlier and have spent nearly 60 years in camps, and not to reject it to anyone. We are willing to explain this to even that segment of people, who fear that their citizenship will be taken away,” Sitharaman said.Reeling out statistics issued by the Union home ministry, the minister said 391 Afghans and 1,595 Pakistanis had been given citizenship in the last two years. In the last six years, 2,838 Pakistanis, 914 Afghans and 172 Bangladeshis had been given citizenship. “Obviously, they include Muslims too,” Sitharaman said.Referring to the pitiable conditions under which refugees live in camps which don’ have even basic amenities, she said those were the people who had come to India from the then East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh. “People like them had to be given citizenship and hence the amendment to the Citizenship Act,” she said.She said the condition was very pitiable in camps where Sri Lankan Tamils live. “Political parties raising the issue for not granting citizenship (to Sri Lankan Tamil) will not talk about these. No human rights organisation will speak about them. Since 1964, more than four lakh Sri Lankans have been granted citizenship. Sri Lankan Tamils living in camps, around 95,000 of them, too will be given citizenship in the coming years,” she said.Stating that the CAA had nothing to do with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), the minister said the NRC had been implemented in Assam as per the directions of the Supreme Court. “There have been no talks about the NRC being implemented across India and the process will be the same as done in Assam. There have been no talks at all,” she said.