Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 11: More than four years after the act was passed by Parliament but not implemented in the face of nation-wide protests, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which for the first time makes religion a test of Indian citizenship came into existence from Monday.
The union ministry of home affairs on Monday evening issued notification for framing the rules under the contentious CAA act which is set to be implemented just weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Notably, implementation of the CAA was an integral part of the BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha Election manifesto.
The Narendra Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 and subsequently got the President’s assent but the law could not come into effect so far as rules could not be notified for its implementation due to protests in several parts of the country against it which sparked fears that it could be used to target religious minorities. More than 100 people died in the violent protests across the nation amidst fierce resistance from activists and opposition politicians.
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 at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has readied a portal for the convenience of the applicants as the entire process will be online. The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents.
A spokesperson for the Home Ministry said eligible individuals could submit applications in “a completely online mode.” No other documentation would be sought from the applicants, official said. Implementation of the CAA was a major campaign platform for the BJP before the 2019 election.
The notification comes less than a month after Union 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 – had also played down fears the CAA, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would 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 Trinamool boss also pointed out the CAA, the NRC, and the National Population Register (NPR) were sensitive topics in Bengal and the northeast, and that she did not want unrest before the election. Significantly, parts of the northeast have been exempted from the CAA.
She also accused the BJP of raking up the CAA issue with an eye on votes. “With elections approaching, BJP has again raked up CAA to reap political benefits. But as long as I am alive, I will not allow it…”. In the northeast – which saw violent clashes between anti-CAA protesters and the police – the Assam Students Union, which led protests in the state four years ago, has sounded the call for another agitation.
Ms Banerjee isn’t the only opposition politician to fight against the CAA. 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 and NRC works.
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 had 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 is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates secular principles of the Constitution.