There is a one-month window for the CAA to be implemented before the next Budget session, which is expected to start on February 1, 2024. The Modi government is expected to notify the rules shortly.
History was made on December 9, 2019, when the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) with an overwhelming majority of 311 votes to 80 votes. Again, on December 11, after a 9-hour-long, intense debate, the Rajya Sabha passed the CAB with 125-105 votes. Needless to add, the passage of CAB by the Indian Parliament, which represents the will of a large part of India’s 1.4 billion citizens, is the biggest endorsement that this landmark law has both its head and heart in the right place.
What then, explains the vicious narrative against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)?
First and foremost, CAA does not violate Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. Those harping about the “right to equality” under Article 14 have no problem in taking specific privileges conferred on minorities in India under Articles 29 and 30. Why? Is it a case of wanting to “having your cake and eating it too?” In any case, all rights including those under Article 14, are not absolute but subject to “reasonable restrictions” pertaining to “public order, morality and health”. It took a fearlessly resolute leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stature to bring in the CAA, easily one of the most enabling and empowering provisions in recent times. Parties with a divisive agenda like the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) even moved the Supreme Court against the Ministry of Home Affairs’ notification pertaining to citizenship for non-Muslim refugees.
As per the notification dated May 28, 2021, the MHA invited applications for citizenship from Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and Buddhists hailing from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who are currently residing in 13 districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab. While the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, will be framed soon, the Ministry invoked the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955. “In exercise of powers conferred under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955), the Central government hereby directs that powers exercisable by it for registration as citizen of India under Section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act 1955 in respect of any person belonging to minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, residing in the districts mentioned and the States mentioned below,” the home ministry notification said.
This is in addition to the 16 districts in seven states that were given powers to verify and approve citizenship under the Citizenship Act, 1955 (and rules framed under the law in 2009), earlier. Now, the provision is being implemented in a total of 29 districts in nine states. Interestingly, the MHA order makes no mention of West Bengal and Assam, both of which have long borders with Bangladesh. It is also in no way connected to the CAA enacted in 2019.
What is the procedure under the 1955 Act? The MHA order has been issued under the older Citizenship Act passed in 1955 and not under CAA 2019. A similar notification was issued in 2018 as well for other districts in several states. Under the 1955 Act, people who are neither born in India nor can claim citizenship based on ancestry (illegals are excluded) can also become a citizen of India by registration, by fulfilling any one of the criteria, like being Indian-origin.
A person can also become a citizen by naturalisation, this has the broadest eligibility. There are no requirements of Indian descent, birth or Indian origin. To become a naturalised citizen, a person must be residing in India throughout the 12 months preceding the citizenship application. Also, immediately before these 12 months, the person must be residing in India for a total of 11 out of 14 years.
How CAA 2019 changes it? The option of naturalisation or registration is not available to illegal immigrants. For legal migrants, who want to apply for Indian citizenship, all the rules are the same. There is no discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims. Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan can also become Indian citizens through legal ways, like everyone else. Illegal migrants are foreigners who enter India without a valid passport or travel document or stay beyond the permitted time.
Here’s where the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 comes in. The Act states that Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan will not be treated as illegal migrants, and therefore, be eligible for naturalisation. This exception has been provided as the above communities, facing religious persecution, were forced to cross the border to save their lives and dignity.
Also, under provisions for citizenship by naturalisation, they will have to fulfill the requirement of 5 years of residence in India, as opposed to 11 out of 14 years for others.
The Act exempts all Northeast states except non-Tribal areas of Tripura and Assam. It also puts a cut-off date – only those who have come to India before 31 December 2014 are eligible though there is a buzz that the cut-off date norms may be further relaxed.
What is the Citizenship Amendment Act?
The Act simply makes it easier for persecuted minorities from India’s neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become citizens of India as it entitles Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians facing religious persecution in these nations, to seek Indian citizenship. The Act says the refugees of these six communities will be given Indian citizenship if they entered India on or before December 31, 2014, after residing in India for five years, vide Amendment 2 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Who benefits from CAA?
Well, the legislation applies to those who were “forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the ground of religion”. The requirement to stay in India for those belonging to any of the aforesaid 6 religions for at least 11 years before applying for Indian citizenship has been reduced to five years. Indian citizenship, under present law, is given either to those born in India or if they have resided in the country for a minimum of 11 years.
Who is excluded from the Act’s purview?
The Act does not apply to tribal areas of Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya, because of being included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Also, areas that fall under the Inner Limit notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation,1873, will also be outside the CAA’s purview. This keeps almost the entire Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland out of the ambit of the Act.
How is the National Register of Citizens (NRC) linked to the Citizenship Act?
The National Register of Citizens is an exercise that will enlist all Indian citizens on a ‘national register’ by vetting their documentation. The NRC does not exclude any Muslim who is a genuine Indian citizen. It only seeks to provide citizenship to minorities from Muslim-majority nations, where the said minorities are known to face persecution.
NRC does not discriminate based on religion, so Muslims have nothing to fear. Every sane country in the world has a national register of its citizens and India is no exception. Opposition parties like the Congress have amnesia and conveniently forgotten that the Assam accord inked by Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, provided for NRC exercise in Assam, to check illegal migrants and infiltrators. Congress-led Central governments also made suitable insertions in the Citizenship Act thereafter by way of Clause 14A in 2004, relating to the issuance of national identity cards to all citizens of India and later Schedule 4A in 2009, was also added. Hence fanning passions, by spreading falsehoods regarding the NRC and CAA, to further the Congress brand of divisive politics, simply because it has been electorally vanquished by the electorate, is not justified.
What is the Modi government’s reasoning for CAA?
Home minister, the very erudite and dynamic Amit Shah has said that the measure has the endorsement of over a billion Indians as it was always a part of the BJP manifesto, both in the general elections in 2014 and 2019. The Act does not discriminate against anyone and does not snatch anyone’s rights and that is precisely the reason the BJP-led Modi government stormed to power with a brute majority, in two successive Lok Sabha elections.
The exclusion of Muslims is not an act of Islamophobia. Muslims in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the majority community in these nations and the CAA is meant for only minorities facing religious persecution in these nations. In any case, there are 50 Muslim-majority nations globally, of which 45 have officially declared themselves as Islamic Republics. Muslims, including Ahmediyas and Bahais, can find shelter in any of these 50 Muslim-centric nations but a persecuted Hindu for instance has no country to turn to. Hence those protesting against CAA are exhibiting Hinduphobia. Being pro-Hindu or pro-Buddhist does not make CAA anti-Muslim.
How many people are likely to apply for naturalisation under CAA?
With the cut-off date set at December 31, 2014, the number of people who will benefit from the amendments stands at 31,313, a figure submitted by the IB during a parliamentary committee hearing on the bill in 2016. As per official records, there are 31,313 persons belonging to minority communities (Hindus- 25447, Sikhs – 5807, Christians – 55, Buddhists – 2 and Parsis – 2) who have been given long-term visas based on their claim of religious persecution in their respective countries and want Indian Citizenship. Hence, these persons will be immediate beneficiaries.
What is the Northeast Angle in the CAA?
The opposition to the CAA has been miniscule. It is only vested, politically aligned groups owing allegiance to the Congress and leftists who are fanning violence to derive political capital given their depleting political fortunes. Assam and Meghalaya saw normalcy after the temporary imposition of curfew, preventing agenda-driven protests by vested groups from taking a grim turn. The Northeastern states have faced large-scale migration from infiltrators and illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries, thanks to years of lethargy displayed by successive Congress-led regimes. However, with the unstoppable Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm, Northeast is finally getting its due.
It is precisely to prevent any further large-scale demographic invasion by infiltrators like the Rohingyas for instance, that the CAA will step in, by legitimising the residency of only persecuted minorities from the three neighbouring countries, without damaging the existing socio-demographic fabric of the Northeast.
Will CAA apply to all Indian states?
The amended law inserts a new clause that says: “Nothing in this section shall apply to the tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under ‘The Inner Line’ notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.”
Apart from the above exceptions, the law shall be applicable across all states. The chief ministers of Congress-ruled states like Punjab, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have stated that they will not implement the act in their respective states. However, states do not have the power to refuse implementation of the law, as it is enacted under the Union List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
In the last two years, over 30 district magistrates and home secretaries of nine states have been given powers to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955. The treatment to be given to the “classified communities” in the particular neighbouring countries has been attracting the attention of successive governments but no government took any legislative measure and merely acknowledged the problem and took some administrative action through executive instructions regarding entry, stay and citizenship issues of these classified communities.
It was finally the relentless conviction of PM Modi that resulted in the passage of the historic CAA, to enable and empower these classified communities and legitimise their status in India.
“It is India’s responsibility to give refuge to those people who have been oppressed due to their faith. These people have faced historical injustice… and to stop this and fulfill our old promise, we have brought the CAA. Our government brought in CAA to give citizenship to such people but some political parties are in competition to do vote bank politics. For whose interest are they working? Why can’t they see atrocities faced by these people in Pakistan? There are many Dalits (among those who have been oppressed). These people have been oppressed,” PM Modi had rightfully and famously said, after the passage of the CAA.
Modi further said that a sanitation job advertisement by the Pakistani Army stated it was only open to non-Muslims, implying it was for Dalits. He also referred to the Enemy Property Act and said those opposing this legislation are also the very lot against the CAA. After partition, those who left India for Pakistan could still lay claim to their properties. The Enemy Property Act 2016 allows the transfer of enemy property from the enemy to other persons.
Citizenship Amendment Act corrects historical injustices and fulfills the promise made under the Nehru-Liaquat pact to religious minorities in neighbouring countries. What Nehru promised but failed to do was finally done by PM Modi. Don’t forget India had assured minorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan when it gained independence in 1947 that they could come to the country if needed.
This was Mahatma Gandhi’s wish and also the intention behind the Nehru-Liaquat pact, which Nehru however deliberately failed to honour, driven by appeasement politics which has always been the hallmark of the Congress. The pact signed in 1950 between Nehru and his Pakistan counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan was aimed at allowing refugees to return to dispose of their property, return abducted women and looted property and de-recognise forced conversions.
The CAA does not disturb the status quo of any Indian citizen. It simply gives legitimacy to persecuted religious minorities who are already residing or have been forced to seek refuge in India and were compelled to flee from their “home” countries after facing religious persecution. Muslims are not a minority in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, hence Muslims have been excluded from CAA.
The CAA exercise is constitutional, legal and simply put, symbolises the greatest good of the greatest number. It is yet another example of how the resoluteness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieved what a vacuous Nehru promised but failed to deliver.
Sanju Verma is an Economist, National Spokesperson of the BJP and the Bestselling Author of ‘The Modi Gambit’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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