A Detailed Synopsis of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA): Meaning, Key Features, and Objectives

India is an independent, secular, and peace-loving nation. Perhaps it is the one nation in the world that has been able to justify the motto of ‘Unity in Diversity. Maybe this is the reason why people from many nations want Indian Citizenship.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 was approved by members of the Lok Sabha on 9 December 2019. President signed the bill on 12 December 2019, which is why it is known as an actor now. It has also been criticised as discriminating based on religion, specifically by excluding Muslims. Its Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) declared it “fundamentally discriminatory”. The Indian government’s “goal of protecting groups that are being targeted is a good thing” must be achieved through an equal and non-discriminatory “robust National asylum system”.

What is Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was enacted through India’s Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. The Act amended the Citizenship Act 1955 by offering a path toward Indian Citizenship for minority religions from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, or Christians who arrived in India before the end of December 2014. The law does not provide this kind of Citizenship to Muslims in these Muslim-majority nations. This marked the first occasion religion was utilised as a criterion to be a citizen under Indian law and drew international criticism.

With the 2019 amendment, migrants who entered India on or before 31 December 2014 and experienced “religious discrimination or fear of persecution for their religion” in their country of origin became eligible for Citizenship. The amendment also eased the residence requirement for naturalisation of those who have migrated to India from 12 years to 6. As per Intelligence Bureau records, more than 30000 people will benefit from the bill.

Protest Against the Bill

Some critics are concerned that the bill could be used, in conjunction with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), to make some Muslim citizens stateless as they might not be able to comply with stringent identity or birth evidence conditions. Some critics are also concerned about excluding religious minorities from different regions like Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. The Indian government stated that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are all ruled by Islam as their official religion. Therefore, it is “unlikely” that Muslims will “face religious persecutors” in these countries. However, specific Muslim groups, like Hazaras and Ahmadis, have been historically subject to persecutors in these countries.

The passing of the bill led to massive protests across India. Assam and other states in the northeast saw violent protests against the legislation due to fears that granting Indian Citizenship to illegal migrants and refugees would end its “political rights, cultural and rights to land” and encourage further movement from Bangladesh. In other areas of India, protesters claimed that the law did not favour Muslims and demanded Indian citizens be given Citizenship in the case of Muslim refugees and immigrants. Protests in large numbers against the Act took place at several colleges in India. Students from Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia protested against the brutal suppression by police. The protests have resulted in the deaths of several protesters, injuries suffered by both police officers and protesters inflicting damage on private and public properties and being detained by hundreds of individuals and the suspension of local mobile phone connectivity in specific areas.

Relationship to NRC

The National Register of Citizens is a registry of all lawful citizens. Its creation and maintenance were made mandatory by the amendment in 2003 to the Citizenship Amendment Act. In January 2020, the NRC was only implemented in states like Assam. However, the BJP has promised to implement it across the entire country of India in its election manifesto. The NRC records all legally-qualified citizens to ensure that those who are not documented could be deemed illegal immigrants (often known as “foreigners”). The NRC’s experience with Assam NRC shows that many individuals were classified as “foreigners” because their documents were considered insufficient.

There are fears that the current amendment to the Citizenship Act provides a “shield” for non-Muslims who can claim that they were refugees fleeing the persecution of Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh; however, the Muslims are not entitled to the same benefit.

Conclusion

The bill was resisted by The Indian National Congress, which declared that it would cause communal tensions and divide India. Most Chief Ministers in the Indian state, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala and Rajasthan, and the union territory Puducherry which are all run by the non-BJP government – stated that they would not be implementing the law. In the words of the Union Home Ministry, states cannot legally prevent the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Indian Union Muslim League petitioned the Supreme Court of India to declare the bill unconstitutional. The family that is the royals of Tripura submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court against the bill. The first hearing of the Supreme Court of India on 60 petitions contesting the Act was held on 18 December 2019. In the initial hearing, the court refused to stop the application of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.