The CAA was passed by the Parliament in 2019 amid huge protests across the country. The act expedites the citizenship process for non-Muslim migrants – including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians – who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before 2014.
What does CAA mean?
The purpose of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) is to give Indian citizenship to refugees of six communities (Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis), who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
X
Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar)
@AmitShah
The Modi government today notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation. With this notification PM Shri
Ji has delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of our constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries.
A spokesperson for the Home Ministry said eligible individuals could submit applications in “a completely online mode”. No other documentation will be sought from the applicants, one official said.
The government on Monday evening issued a notification for the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA, which comes into effect today weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The CAA was cleared by Parliament in December 2019 amid protests by activists and opposition politicians.
Now that the notification has been issued, the central government can grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants – from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – who came to India due to religious persecution before December 31, 2014.
Implementation of the CAA was a major campaign platform for the BJP before the 2019 election.
And this notification comes less than a month after Home Minister Amit Shah called the CAA “an act of the country” and said, “it will definitely be notified. CAA will come into effect before the election…”
The Home Minister – who led the government’s charge on this topic in both houses of Parliament – also played down fears the CAA, and the NRC, or National Register of Citizens, will be used to target Muslims.
He accused Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee – who has long been one of the CAA’s fiercest and most vocal critics – of deliberately misleading the people of her state on this topic. Bengal – with 42 Lok Sabha seats – is shaping to be a key battleground for the BJP as it bids to reach its target of 370.
Meanwhile, Ms Banerjee hit out almost immediately, telling reporters at a hastily-convened press conference that her government would steadfastly oppose “anything that discriminates (against) people”.
If there is any discrimination, we won’t accept it. Be it religion, caste, or linguistic. They won’t be able to give citizenship to anyone in two days. This is just lollipop and show-off,” she declared.
“After multiple extensions in four years, its implementation two to three days before the election announcement shows that it is being done for political reasons,” she slammed the BJP.
The Bengal leader’s Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin, was similarly emphatic. Accusing the BJP government of going “against communal harmony”, the DMK boss too vowed he would not implement the law.
Other states – like Kerala and Punjab – and others then ruled by the Congress (and now by the BJP) – such as Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – also opposed the CAA and passed resolutions. In fact, the Bengal and Kerala governments also stopped all NPR, or National Population Register, and NRC work.
In Telangana, the then-ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi of ex-Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao also passed resolutions against all three and urged the government to “remove all references to any religion, or to any foreign country” in view of fears expressed by lakhs across the country.
The Madhya Pradesh government – then also ruled by the Congress – also passed a resolution, and, significantly, several BJP leaders and lawmakers from the state also criticised the law.
The government has said the Citizenship Amendment Act will help minorities from Muslim-dominated countries get citizenship if they fled due to religious persecution. However, critics say it discriminates against Muslims and violates the Constitution.
