Controversial CAA becomes reality in India ahead of polls

Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the Indian government today issued a notification for implementation of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.

The CAA — which makes religion, for the first time, a test of citizenship — was cleared by Indian parliament in December 2019 amid violent protests, in which over 100 people died, and fierce resistance from opposition politicians and non-BJP states.

Now that the notification is issued, the government can grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan — who came to India before 2015.

The rules were notified weeks after Indian Home Minister Amit Shah had said that CAA would be implemented across the entire country before the elections, drawing a sharp riposte from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who today vowed not to allow it to be enforced in her state.

Although CAA was passed by both Houses of parliament in December, 2019, it had remained unimplemented till today due to non-framing of the rules for the law’s enforcement.

The entire process of applying for Indian citizenship will be completely online for which a web portal has been provided, an Indian home ministry spokesperson said. No document will be sought from the applicants, an official added.

According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of presidential assent or the government has to seek an extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Since 2020, the home ministry has been taking extensions of time at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.

On December 27, 2023, Home Minister Amit Shah had said no one can stop the implementation of the CAA as it is the law of the land and accused Mamata Banerjee of misleading people on the issue.

The promise of implementing the controversial CAA was a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in West Bengal in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

The BJP leaders consider CAA a plausible factor that led to the rise of the BJP in Bengal.

In the last two years, over 30 district magistrates and home secretaries in nine states have been given powers to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955, which is different from CAA.

According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2021-22, from April 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021, a total of 1,414 foreigners belonging to these non-Muslim minority communities from the three countries were given Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation under the Citizenship Act of 1955.

The nine Indian states where Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation is given under the Citizenship Act, 1955 to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra.

Authorities of none of the districts of Assam and West Bengal, where CAA is politically very sensitive, have been given the powers so far.

Implementation of the Citizenship Act comes just weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party will bid for a third consecutive term.

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