Rama Krishna Sangem
Days before announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha (LS) elections by the Election Commission of India, the Centre on Tuesday notified the rules for implementing the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), four years and three months after Parliament passed it on December 11, 2019.
The law will enable the government to grant Indian nationality to persecuted religious minorities — Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs — from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who had come to India until December 31, 2014. After abrogation of Article 370 and construction of Ram Mandir, this CAA will be PM Modi’s last poll plank in his second term as he gears up for a third term.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has prepared a web portal for the applicants’ convenience, as the entire process will be online, a spokesperson for MHA said. The CAA’s avowed objectives are to remove legal barriers to the rehabilitation and acquisition of Indian citizenship for migrants, which would help protect their cultural, linguistic, and social identity.
The law will also ensure economic, commercial, free movement, and property purchase rights for these migrants. Sources said many misconceptions have been spread about CAA, but the law is designed to give citizenship and “will not take away the citizenship of any Indian citizen, irrespective of religion”.
CAA for those who suffered abroad
The law is only for those who have suffered persecution for years and have no other shelter in the world except India, they said. the implementation of the CAA was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With its implementation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fulfilled its promise in its 2019 LS poll manifesto, they said.
After the rules were notified, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered on another of his commitments and fulfilled the “promise of the makers of our Constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians” living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said the notification’s timing, which is “right before the elections”, is “designed to polarise” the people, especially in West Bengal and Assam. It also “appears to be an attempt to manage the headlines after the Supreme Court’s severe strictures of the electoral bond scandal”, he said.
