CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT – POLITY
News: Centre
seeks six more months to frame Citizenship Amendment Act rules
What's in the news?
● The
Union Home Ministry has sought another
extension of six months to frame the rules of the Citizenship (Amendment)
Act, 2019 (CAA), without which it cannot be implemented. This is the seventh
such extension sought by the Ministry.
Key takeaways of CAA, 2019:
Provision of citizenship:
● The
Act, which was passed in 2019, fast
tracks the citizenship of people from the Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Christian,
Buddhist and Jain communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who
entered India before December 31, 2014, without any documents.
Relaxations:
● Under
The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by
naturalization 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.
Exemption:
● Most
parts of the northeastern states are
exempted from the Act. The tribal areas
of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the States of Arunachal
Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur are exempted from provisions of the Act.
● The
undocumented migrants who will be deemed Indian citizens through the Act will
not be able to settle down in the exempted areas.
● The CAA exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under Foreigners Act, 1946 and Passport Act, 1920, which specify punishment for entering the country illegally and staying on expired visas and permits.
Issues with CAA, 2019:
1. Country of Origin:
● The
Act classifies migrants based on their country of origin to include only
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
2. Other religious minorities ignored:
● It
is unclear why illegal migrants from only six specified religious minorities
have been included in the Act.
3. Defiance of purpose:
● India
shares a border with Myanmar, which has had a history of persecution of a
religious minority, the Rohingya Muslims.
4. Date of Entry:
● It
is also unclear why there is a differential treatment of migrants based on
their date of entry into India, i.e., whether they entered India before or
after December 31, 2014.
5. Against the spirit of Secularism:
● Further,
granting citizenship on the grounds of religion is seen to be against the
secular nature of the Constitution which has been recognized as part of the
basic structure that cannot be altered by Parliament.
6. Issues in North-eastern states:
● The
prospect of citizenship for massive numbers of illegal Bangladeshi migrants has
triggered deep anxieties, including fears of demographic change, loss of
livelihood opportunities, and erosion of the indigenous culture.
Significance of the Act:
1. Benefit non-Muslims:
● There
are apprehensions that the CAA, followed by a country-wide compilation of the
National Register of Citizens (NRC), will benefit non-Muslims excluded from the
proposed citizens’ register, while excluded Muslims will have to prove their
citizenship.
2. Religious persecution:
● The
Bill aims to grant citizenship to minorities who have faced religious
persecution in Muslim-majority foreign countries.
3. Partition:
● The
Bill is righting the wrongs of history by granting refuge to the sons and
daughters of “Ma Bharti”, who were left stranded by Partition.
4. Fixing the error:
● It
has linked the passage of the Bill with a nationwide National Register of
Citizens (NRC), suggesting that even if the Assam NRC erred in leaving out some
non-Muslims, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would fix the error.
WAY FORWARD:
● India
is a constitutional democracy with a
basic structure that assures a secure and spacious home for all Indians.
● Being
partitioned on religious grounds, India has to undertake a balancing act for
protecting the religious minorities in its neighbourhood. These minorities are
under constant threat of persecution and vandalism.
● India
needs to balance its civilization duties to protect those who are prosecuted in
the neighbourhood.