Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
[45][46][47] The Act was first amended in 1985 after the Assam Accord signed by Rajiv Gandhi government, granting citizenship to all Bangladeshi migrants that arrived before 1971 subject to some provisos.
[55][56][f] During the parliamentary debate on the amendment, the leader of opposition, Manmohan Singh, stated that refugees belonging to minority communities in Bangladesh and other countries had faced persecution, and requested a liberal approach to granting them citizenship.
Venu, the formulation of the 2003 amendment discussed by Advani and Singh was based on the idea that Muslim groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan that had experienced persecution also needed to be treated with compassion.
[73][76][g] According to Shuvro Sarker, since the 1950s and particularly since the 1990s, the Indian governments under various political parties have studied and drafted laws for the naturalisation of refugees and asylum seekers.
These drafts have struggled with issues relating to a mass influx of refugees, urban planning, cost of basic services, the obligations to protected tribes, and the impact on pre-existing regional poverty levels within India.
[81] The year before the 2016 elections in Assam, the government legalised refugees belonging to religious minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh, granting them long-term visas.
[87] In parallel to the drafting of an amendment to the 1955 Citizenship Act, the BJP government completed an effort to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state of Assam.
[92][93][h] On 19 November 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah, declared in the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of the Indian parliament) that the National Register of Citizens would be implemented throughout the country.
It stated that religious minorities such as Hindus and Sikhs are persecuted in neighbouring Muslim-majority countries, and promised to fast track a path to citizenship for non-Muslim refugees.
[99] The Indian government, while proposing an Amendment, said, that its bill aims to grant quicker access to citizenship to those who have fled religious persecution in neighbouring countries and have taken refuge in India.
[120] However, the Government of India says that it does not maintain records of CAA applicants as there is no such provision for record-keeping, thus making it difficult to ascertain the numbers of absolute beneficiaries of the Act.
[77] Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh are Muslim-majority countries that have modified their constitutions in recent decades to declare Islam their official state religion.
[127] In this context, there are concerns that the present amendment of the Citizenship Act provides a "shield" to the non-Muslims, who can claim that they were migrants who fled persecution from Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, while the Muslims do not have such a benefit.
[133][134] The UK, USA, France, Israel and Canada issued travel warnings for people visiting India's north-east region, telling their citizens to "exercise caution".
[161] On 16 December, after the protests entered the fifth day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for calm in a series of tweets saying "No Indian has anything to worry regarding this act.
As a result of defining the ban, thousands of protesters were detained, including several opposition leaders and activists such as Ramachandra Guha, Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Umar Khalid, Sandeep Dikshit, Tehseen Poonawalla and D Raja.
[189] The Chief Ministers of the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala and Rajasthan and union territory of Puducherry – all led by non-BJP governments – said they will not implement the law.
[192] Kerala becomes the first state to challenge the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by filing a plea in the Supreme Court of India under Article 131 of the Constitution.
[193] Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan affirmed that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is viewed as divisive and declared its non-implementation in the state, asserting that it treats Muslim minorities unfairly.
[201] Former National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon called the incident a self inflicted goal that has isolated India from the International community.
[207] The petition stated that the act "fulfills the long-standing demand of providing refuge to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan".
[208] Historian Neeti Nair commented that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens represent steps towards a "Hindu Rashtra" that should be "summarily dismissed both by the people and by the courts".
Individuals who entered India legally from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014, and belong to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian community are eligible.
They must have resided legally and worked in India continuously for six years, from 2008 to December 31, 2014, and possess all necessary documents, such as valid or expired passports, ID cards, and land tenancy records, to prove their membership in one of the six specified religious groups from the aforementioned three neighbouring nations, in order to meet the eligibility criteria for Indian citizenship through naturalization.
[255] The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) implementation in Northeast India has encountered significant opposition, particularly in Assam and other states of the region.
Despite the recent abolishment of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar, NESU has remained relatively inactive in addressing the concerns of the region's inhabitants.
[262][246] The WSF and other organisations like the Naga Student Federation has also sought international intervention on the issue, urging the United Nations to address the discriminatory nature of the CAA and its potential threat to the sovereignty and rights of indigenous peoples in the region.
[269] Various organizations in Assam, such as the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), have demanded the implementation of an Inner Line Permit system to protect and prevent the state from further illegal immigrants.
[34] Over 350 people were granted Indian citizenship online (digitally signed certificates through email), with Amit Shah acknowledging 25,000+ pending applications, where the processing involves the Election Commission of India (ECI) and district-level committees (DLC) chaired by senior superintendents.
[38] Similarly, Pakistani Hindu refugees living in north Delhi's "Majnu ka Tila" expressed hopes for a better future, and some people who received their citizenship hailed it as the first day of their "new life" in India.
