What is the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Indian government on December 11th, 2019. Initially introduced as CAB in 2016, the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha but remained in the Rajya Sabha following protests against it in northeastern India. The CAA amends the former Citizenship Law, 1955 to enable easy access to Indian Citizenship for people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, who are Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, or Parsi by faith. It states that anyone, satisfying the previously mentioned criteria, who entered India illegally before 31stDecember 2014, shall no longer be treated as an illegal immigrant. With exemption to conditions specified under the Passport (Entry Into India) Act, 1920 and Foreigners Act, 1946, they shall be eligible to avail Indian citizenship within 6 years of arrival and 5 years of residence required for naturalization.
What is the National Register of Citizens?
As a result of rising illegal immigration in the state of Assam, people of Assam pushed for a process to curb illegal immigration as it posed a threat to the ethnic diversity and led to a fear of loss of land rights for the indigenous Assamese people. After the Supreme Court struck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination By Tribunal) Act, 1983 in 2005, the current BJP government took it upon itself to implement the same. On 31 August 2019, the BJP government came out with the Assam NRC that excluded nearly 1.9 million Assamese residents. They were rendered stateless and were declared foreign nationals. This has been currently applied only to the state of Assam, but the government claims to implement the same in other states as well in the years to come
Requirements to be recognized under NRC
1. The name of the family of the resident must be included under the 1951 NRC or must be registered under electoral rolls up to March 24th, 1971
2. The resident must be able to produce a list of government demanded documents as address proof.
Why is CAA not accepted by all?
Firstly, CAA is argued to be discriminatory as it doesn’t include Muslims. This violates article 14 of the Indian Law that promises, anyone and everyone who is safeguarded by the constitution, equality before the law. But doesn’t this apply to only Indian citizens? One might ask. The answer is no. When someone is facing persecution, irrespective of on what basis, in their home country and they apply for asylum in India and are wishing to seek citizenship, they are guaranteed legal protection and safeguarded by article 14. But CAA specifies certain religious groups that would have an advantage over Muslims, which is a clear violation of article 14. CAA also violates articles 25-28 of the Indian law that allows anyone and everyone who is safeguarded by the constitution to remain in or embrace any faith, propagate it within the nation, and even gives them a right to not follow any faith.
Secondly, followers of Islamic sects like Shia Islam, Ahmadiyya, and Sufism who are also persecuted in countries like Afghanistan (where 85% of the population is Sunni), Pakistan ( where 96.4% of the population is Sunni, and Shias are a mere 3.6%) and Bangladesh find it close to impossible to seek legal residence in India, which has been a major migration destination for people from these sects for decades.
Thirdly, with unemployment being highest in 45 years and the indigenous population rising rapidly, additional immigrants (who are mainly from economically backward backgrounds) shall put an unwanted burden on the already suffering economy of the country. When catering to the needs of the indigenous population itself seems to be difficult, encouraging immigration wouldn’t be smart, and providing decent facilities to the newcomers shall be a challenge.
Why is NRC not accepted by all?
With only 5.5% of the Indian population having valid passports, NRC would prove to be inefficient and counterproductive, because of the exceptionally high probability of excluding a resident of the Indian land from NRC and labeling him/her as a foreign national. With residents of the Indian land being alienated and welcoming foreign nationals to avail citizenship (as per CAA), a serious threat to diversity and ancestral heritage, that people carry forward, can be seen as likely.
Among people who fail to find themselves a place in the NRC, people belonging to communities mentioned under CAA can reapply for Indian citizenship. Communities excluded shall see no clear means to regain what they believe has always been theirs. This ethnic filtration is something people do not consider fair or acceptable.
With the current system in place, petty errors such as a misspelled name (as seen in the case of Tajab Ali, who’s name had been spelled Tajap Ali in the 1985 voter’s list) can prove to be the cause of exclusion from NRC.
The poor state of detention centres, that house people who haven’t been included in NRC and whose foreign links haven’t been confirmed, is another aspect of concern. The current detention centres in Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Matia, Kokrajhar in Assam, which are run by the district jail administration, have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Human rights activists have highlighted the lack of sanitation facilities, exceptionally long and uncertain detention tenure, deaths due to apprehension and illness.
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