CAA Reality vs Propaganda

The hotly debated and widely discussed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 is an Act to further amend the Citizenship Act 1955.

- DR. ATANU MOHAPATRA

Under the Citizenship Act 1955, a person can be a citizen of India at least in four ways, namely: i. by birth; ii. by descent; iii. by registration and iv. by naturalization. While the first three criteria are intact, the procedure related to grant of citizenship through naturalization was modified to illegal migrants belonging to Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Sikh and Parsi religions who came to India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before 31st December 2014 instead of 12 years provision as mentioned in the Citizenship Act before CAA. The intent of the law has been to provide refuge and a dignified life to the non-Muslim illegal migrants came to India suffering from religious persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh on account of their minority status.

While the issue is long overdue, many questions the timing of the Act to which Home Minister Shri. Amit Shah has arguably answered by saying that “We are not here only to run the government but to solve the genuine problems of the common man”. To be honest, while no where does this Act target India's minority community, no illegal immigrants would be allowed to stay in the country at any cost. Since, the population of minorities in the Islamic States of Pakistan and Bangladesh had reduced considerably over the years, as they were either killed or forced to change their religion, and thus were forced to flee to India, the Act is most humane as it provides citizenship and a dignified life to the people taking refuge in India. In fact, the partition of India on religious lines and subsequent failure of the Nehru-Liaqat pact of 1950 in protecting the rights and dignity of the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh are the reasons for bringing this Bill. The biggest mistake in history was partition of India on religious lines. Had this bill come 50 years ago, this situation would not have arisen said Shri Shah.