CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT

(WHAT &WHY)
 Jacklin Mary . J

121901040
 Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11
December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing a path to Indian
citizenship for illegal migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious
minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before
December 2014.[3][4] Muslims from those countries were not given such eligibility.[5][6][7]
The act was the first time religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under
Indian law.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the Indian government, had
promised in previous election manifestos to offer Indian citizenship to members of
persecuted religious minorities who had migrated from neighbouring countries. Under the
2019 amendment, migrants who had entered India by 31 December 2014, and had suffered
"religious persecution or fear of religious persecution" in their country of origin were made
eligible for citizenship. The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for
naturalisation of these migrants from twelve years to six.According to Intelligence Bureau
records, there will be just over 30,000 immediate beneficiaries of the bill.

The amendment has been widely criticised as discriminating on the basis of religion,
particularly for excluding Muslims. The Indian government says that Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Bangladesh have Islam as their state religion and therefore Muslims are "unlikely to
face religious persecution" there. However, certain Muslim groups, such as Hazaras and
Ahmadis, have historically faced persecution in these countries.

Citizenship Amendment Bill

The Bill seeks to amend The Citizenship Act, 1955 to make Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi,
and Christian illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for
citizenship of India. In other words, the Bill intends to make it easier for non-Muslim
immigrants from India's three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.
Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalisation is
that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of
the previous 14 years. The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6
years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the
aforementioned three countries.

Eligibility

Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, a person who is born in India, or has Indian parentage, or
has resided in India over a specified period of time, is eligible for Indian citizenship.
Illegal migrants cannot become Indian citizens. Under the Act, an illegal migrant is a
foreigner who: (i) enters the country without valid travel documents like a passport and
visa, or (ii) enters with valid documents, but stays beyond the permitted time period.
Illegal migrants may be put in jail or deported under The Foreigners Act, 1946 and The
Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.However, in 2015 and 2016, the government exempted
specified groups of illegal migrants from provisions of the 1946 and 1920 Acts. They were
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and
Pakistan, who reached India on or before December 31, 2014.This meant that these
particular categories of illegal migrants would not be deported or jailed for being in India
without valid documents.The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in
Parliament to amend The Citizenship Act, 1955, so that these people could be made eligible
for citizenship of India.

Centre's logic behind the bill

Centre says these minority groups have come escaping persecution in Muslim-majority
nations. However, the logic is not consistent – the bill does not protect all religious
minorities, nor does it apply to all neighbours. The Ahmedia Muslim sect and even Shias face
discrimination in Pakistan. Rohingya Muslims and Hindus face persecution in neighbouring
Burma, and Hindu and Christian Tamils in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The government responds
that Muslims can seek refuge in Islamic nations, but has not answered the other questions.
Amit Shah says that the Bill would not have been necessary if the Congress did not agree to
Partition on the basis of religion. However, India was not created on the basis of religion,
Pakistan was. Only the Muslim League and the Hindu Right advocated the two nation theory
of Hindu and Muslim nations, which led to Partition. All the founders of India were
committed to a secular state, where all citizens irrespective of religion enjoyed full
membership. Either way, this logic for the CAB also collapses because Afghanistan was not
part of pre-Partition India.

Opposition's argument

The CAB ringfences Muslim identity by declaring India a welcome refuge to all other
religious communities. It seeks to legally establish Muslims as second-class citizens of India
by providing preferential treatment to other groups. This violates the Constitution’s Article
14, the fundamental right to equality to all persons. This basic structure of the Constitution
cannot be reshaped by any Parliament. And yet, the government maintains that it does not
discriminate or violate the right to equality.
 Why people are protesting against CAA?

There have widespread protests across the country including the national capital region and
northeastern states against the CAA amendment. The protest in Assam and other
northeastern states turned violent over fears that the move will cause a loss of their
"political rights, culture and land rights" and motivate further migration from Bangladesh.
The agitators say that new amendment in Citizenship Act discriminates against Muslims and
violates the right to equality enshrined in the Constitution of the country. Sects like Shias
and Ahmedis also face persecution in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan but are not
included in the CAA. Questions were also raised on the exclusion of persecuted religious
minorities from other regions such as Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In its defence, the
Central govt has stated that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are Muslim-majority
countries therefore Muslims are "unlikely to face religious persecution" there.

Why is the provision extended only to people of six religions, and not Muslims?

The Union government claims that people of these six faiths have faced persecution in these
three Islamic countries, Muslims haven't. It is, therefore, India's moral obligation to provide
them shelter.

why are migrants from other countries -- such as Hindus from Sri Lanka -- not
eligible to apply for citizenship under this act?

The government says this is a time-bound provision to provide relief to immigrants who
have suffered in Islamic countries because India got divided on religious lines. India has,
from time to time, provided citizenship to immigrants of all religions from different
countries. Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus, too, were given citizenship in the 1970s and 1980s. The
Union government has openly said that the Rohingyas are a threat to national security. Even
an Islamic country like Saudi Arabia has deported Rohingya migrants. The BJP's logic is that
Hindu migrants have only India to fall back on while Muslim migrants have several Islamic
countries to seek shelter in.
 Why does the BJP want to pass it?

The BJP has always maintained that the non-Muslim immigrants are victims of Partition who
fled the three neighbouring countries in the face of religious persecution. The BJP insists
that it is the duty of India to protect them.Secondly, through the Bill’s passage, the BJP and
the RSS want to consolidate the Hindu population in Assam. The Muslims, who account for
around 34 per cent of Assam’s population, are in a majority in at least 11 of the state’s 33
districts. The population of the Bengali Muslims is way greater than the Assamese Muslims.

Will the Citizenship Bill benefit BJP?

A large majority of the 40 lakh people, who were left out of the complete draft of National
Register of Citizens or NRC, are perceived to be Bengali Hindus. The Bengali Hindus have
been traditional Congress vote-banks. They started switching their loyalty to the BJP a few
years ago on seeing the party fighting for their cause through its effort to get the Citizenship
Bill passed. Most people belonging to the community now view the BJP as their messiah

Why are various organisations belonging to Assamese and other indigenous communities
opposed to the Bill?

The various organisations belonging to Assamese and other indigenous communities say the
Citizenship Bill, if passed, will be in violation of the Assam Accord of 1985 and the NRC. In
the Assam Accord which the Rajiv Gandhi government had signed with All Assam Students’
Union after six-year-long Assam Agitation against the illegal immigrants, it was committed
that the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, who migrated to Assam after March 24, 1971, will
be detected and deported. The NRC is being updated based on the same cut-off date.

Secondly, the Assamese and the indigenous communities fear that if the Citizenship Bill is
passed, it will make lakhs of illegal immigrants genuine Indians overnight and that will be a
threat to Assam’s land, language, culture etc. They say an immigrant is an immigrant and
there cannot be Hindu immigrant or Muslim immigrant. They insist that the immigrants,
irrespective of faith who came to Assam after March 24, 1971, should be detected and
deported. They say Assam is already bearing the burden of lakhs of immigrants, all faiths,
who migrated prior to March 24, 1971 and it cannot take any more burden.

News paper article

Thousands gather for anti-CAA protest in Chennai despite government's order for social
distancing amid Covid-19 scare

The protesters belonged to a local Islamic group, Thowheed Jamath who protested outside
the Madras High Court raising slogans against the CAA and demanded for their requests to
be paid heed to. Some even said that while Coronavirus had taken three lives, the
citizenship law protests had claimed 80 lives in India. Tamil Nadu reported its second
positive case of Covid-19 on Wednesday. The patient who hails from Delhi had travelled by
train to Chennai and has been kept in the isolation ward at the Rajiv Gandhi Government
General Hospital in Chennai. The Health Minister, Dr C Vijayabaskar also added that the first
patient to test positive for Coronavirus in the State had fully recovered and had been sent
home.
While these protests occurred on one end, teh protests in Old Washermenpet area which
was being referred to as Chennai's Shaheen Bagh, decided to called off their 33-day long
protest on Wednesday on account of the Coronavirus outbreak. They said they will decide
their further course of action post March 31. This comes after several religious leaders and
politicians had addressed the protesters and requested them to suspend the protests in
light of the spread of the pandemic. Among them was DMK President MK Stalin who visited
the protest site on Monday night.

Protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act held across Karnataka.

Citizens staged a protest at the Mysore Bank Circle here against the Citizenship Amendment
Bill (CAB), which is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament on Monday after the Union
government approved it.

The protesters said CAB is aimed at destroying the secular foundations of the country, and
maintained that the Constitution guarantees equality before law and prohibits
discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. The CAB and the
proposed all-India NRC will violate these provisions, they saidBy offering citizenship to only
non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, this Law has blatantly
ignores the plight of persecuted Muslim minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Sri Lankan
Tamils, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and many other persecuted communities in our
region.

It ignores the reality, brought out starkly during the NRC exercise in Assam that many poor
and vulnerable families lack proper documentation and are being incarcerated for this
reason. Women who marry and leave their natal home, often with incomplete
documentation, have been hit particularly hard, as have many displaced communities.
Imagine the scale of suffering if this is implemented across India," the protestors said.
“We as citizens are against CAB and we oppose this draconian, inhuman, bigoted,
unconstitutional and anti-Muslim Bill.

We demand that the Central government does not introduce the Citizenship Amendment
Bill in the upcoming or any future sessions of Parliament and stop pursuing these cruel,
discriminatory and unjust legislation that are against the values and ideals enshrined in the
Constitution,” they said.
REFERENCE :

https://www.google.co.in/search?client=safari&hl=en-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_(Amendment)_Act,_2019

https://www.google.co.in/search?client=safari&hl=en-

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/citizenship-amendment-bill-2019-parliament-
winter-session-nrc-6122846/lite/

https://m.timesofindia.com/india/what-is-caa/amp_articleshow/73153785.cms

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-
nation/thousands-gather-for-anti-caa-protest-in-chennai-despite-governments-order-for-
social-distancing-amid-covid-19-scare/amp_articleshow/74696350.cms