Prior to the General Elections in 2024, the government officially announced the regulations for enforcing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019. This development has facilitated the process of providing citizenship to illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who are not of the Muslim faith. The government lead by Prime Minister Modi will now start conferring Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who have faced persecution in the mentioned countries and arrived in India before December 31, 2014, as a result of the implementation of the rules of the CAA. These groups include Christians, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Hindus.
What is CAA?
The Act, an amendment in the 1955 Citizenship Act, was initially presented in parliament in July 2016 and approved in December 2019. Prior to the implementation of the CAA, any non-Indian individual who wished to acquire Indian citizenship through the process of naturalization was required to have resided in India for a period of 11 years in order to meet the eligibility criteria. The CAA accelerates the process of granting Indian citizenship to individuals belonging to the Hindu, Parsi, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Christian communities. These individuals sought refuge in India due to religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, which have Muslim-majority populations. The CAA applies to anyone who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. They attain eligibility for citizenship after a period of five years. Applicants belonging to the above religions are eligible, regardless of their existing residence in India without valid visas or other necessary documentation.
The primary objective of the CAA is to safeguard those who have sought asylum in India as a result of religious persecution. It provides them with protection from unlawful immigration procedures. The proposed amendment further has a clause for the revocation of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration in the event that the OCI cardholder contravenes any provision of the Citizenship Act or any other relevant legislation.
Whom does CAA exclude?
Prior to the implementation of the CAA, religion was not considered a factor in determining an individual’s eligibility for an Indian passport. Individuals desiring naturalization were required to provide evidence of their lawful presence in India and were subject to an 11-year waiting period before becoming eligible for citizenship. The CAA revisions introduce, for the first time in the history of independent India, a religious criterion for citizenship. Muslim individuals who have been subjected to religious persecution in countries like Pakistan (such as the Ahmadiyya community), Afghanistan (specifically the Hazara people), or other nearby nations (such the Rohingya in Myanmar), would still have to endure an 11-year waiting period before they are able to qualify for Indian citizenship. In contrast to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians, individuals belonging to this group are required to possess appropriate documents in order to legitimize their presence in India.
There is no provision within it that revokes anyone’s citizenship. The issue with the CAA lies in its discriminatory provision that designates some religious communities as eligible for citizenship. It is assumed that individuals belonging to these six religions in these three nations have escaped persecution. Individuals who do not fit into this classification, either because they arrived in the nation after the specified period or because of their religious affiliation, will still be regarded as unauthorized immigrants.
What is the reason for strong opposition?
Since 2019, the primary contention of the principal opposition parties has been that the law is discriminatory since it specifically focuses on Muslims, who constitute around 15% of the nation’s population. The government clarifies that due to the fact that Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are Islamic countries with a Muslim majority, Muslims cannot be classified as persecuted minority. Nevertheless, they guarantee that proposals from other communities will be evaluated individually. The contentious CAA, enacted in December 2019, has encountered widespread resistance and protests around the nation. The bill has faced criticism from several opposition groups, which have labelled it as “discriminatory”. The Congress party has expressed apprehensions over the timing of the rule notice, asserting that it is designed to create divisions in the next Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal and Assam. Chief Minister Vijayan of Kerala has said that the implementation of the CAA would not take place in the state, as he believes it to be a legislation that fosters sectarian discord.
When considered with the projected all-India National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), the CAA has the capacity to disproportionately affect Muslims living in India by denying them citizenship. Non-Muslims who are excluded from the NCR. will have the chance to recover their citizenship under the CAA. However, Muslims will not have the same possibility. In 2021, a National record of Citizens was conducted in Assam under the supervision of the Supreme Court. This process resulted in the exclusion of more than 1.9 million individuals from the citizenship record.
On May 28, 2021, the Union government issued an order applying Section 16 of the 1955 Act, which bestowed District Collectors in five States with significant migrant populations the authority to confer citizenship upon specific groups designated in the 2019 amendment. The MHA’s 2021-22 Annual Report disclosed that a total of 1,414 citizenship certificates were conferred in 2021, in accordance with the terms of the CAA.
Ultimately, the enactment of the CAA 2019 has ignited fervent discussion and prompted crucial inquiries regarding its impact on India’s secular framework and its dedication to inclusiveness. Although the government’s decision to offer sanctuary to persecuted minority from surrounding nations is praiseworthy, the act’s discriminatory nature has drawn condemnation from many observers. The actual consequences of the CAA, however, will depend on how it is executed. The government must guarantee that the implementation is equitable, transparent, and in accordance with the ideals of equality and justice entrenched in the Indian Constitution. The CAA can only fully achieve its intended goal by upholding the core values of the nation.