The Indian Central Government led by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi officially announced the
implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on the 11th of March, ahead of the Lok
Sabha elections, which are tentatively scheduled to be held around the month of end April/1st week
of May, this year. the centre, along with the notification of the implementation of this much debated
and controversial act, also announced the rules that are to be enforced, following the
commencement of the law, thereby making this ACT a reality from now onwards. A decision which
did not take much time to come into affect after the Union Home Minister Amit Shah publicly
declared that this particular ACT shall be implemented into a law, right before the onset of the
proceedings of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
What is the Citizenship Amendment Act?
The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019, emphasises on the basis of providing citizenship to
foreigners who have immigrated into our country from the neighbouring countries. This Amendment,
therefore provides a pre-approved freeway passage for “non- Muslim” immigrants from Afghanistan,
Bangladesh and Pakistan who immigrated before 2015, to acquire their legal Indian citizenship,
which is solely performed on the basis of religion. The implementation of this particular Amendment
accelerates their leverage towards citizenship and catapults their ability to obtain all legal,
fundamental, social and other rights which are guaranteed to the other citizens of the country. The
implementation of the law ensures the guaranteed citizenship rights to the religious minorities of the
neighbouring countries who have been a victim of numerous heinous crimes such as religious
persecution and other intensive violence in their respective native countries. The implementation of
the law ensures an official solidarity and protection from the government of India which aims to
provide a peaceful and safe environment to these minority religious communities and ensures to
bestow a suitable place for them to live and thrive in. This amendment thus nullified and removes
the prerequisites of residence requirement and naturalisation that was previously heralded as a
criterion for citizenship. According to statements issued by the official reports, there are about more
than 30,000 immediate recipients who are eligible to be benefited from this law.
Religion as a Category of Citizenship
For the very first time in history, we have a law such as CAA that makes religion, a category of
towards individuals to obtain their Indian citizenship, wherein, “non-Muslims” are adhered with the
utmost priority by the government in deciding whom to provide with the privilege of owning the
rights of becoming an Indian Citizen. After almost four whole years since the passing of this law from
both the houses of the Lok Sabha, CAA now becomes a new reality. The implementation of this act
into a law has always been vehemently right under the array of extreme imminent danger and
violence which saw massive protests filled with fuming rage and extreme violence , which were set
against with fierce resistance from the government of the opposition parties and from the non – BJP
party state governments.
Once issued, the government shall have absolute authority and control to approve and award Indian
Nationality to the NON-Muslim migrants of the said three neighbouring countries, that is
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The eligible religious minorities to be granted with citizenship
are the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parisians and Christians. Thus, making it as the first and the
only law that makes the aspect of religion as criteria for being considered towards getting the
approval of obtaining citizenship from the government of India.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill ( addressed as CAB initially) was first introduced in the year 2016. This motive aimed to change, or to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955. Which was later passed in the year 2019; first by the Lok Sabha on 9th of December 2019, and two days later by the Rajya Sabha on 11th of December. Which was subsequently thereafter came to be officially revered to as the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Criticisms faced against this Act
This Act has always been in the hot waters for being religiously discriminatory against the Muslim
community that tends to dominate and overpower this particular religious community with the
overarching presence of all the other religious communities combined. The office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UNHCHR) deems this act as “fundamentally
discriminatory “ and derogatory manipulation towards slow nullification of one particular
community, which they lay an emphasis upon by stating that ; India’s aim in ensuring a safe
protection of all the religious minorities that have been victims of religious persecution is highly
appreciated however, this noble cause should be performed without any racial or religious prejudice
that tends to over-line and insinuate the performance of the legal proceedings through undertones
of religious hatred that tends to manipulate their way into massive eradication of all the individuals
of one particular religious and ethnic community as per their liking.
How many times has the Citizenship Act amended?
So far, this particular Act which is deeply seeped into violent controversies has been amended for 6
times in total. The very first Amendment was initiated in the year 1986, which was followed with a
second amendment in the year 1992, the third amendment in the year 2003, which soon followed
which the fourth amendment just after two years in 2005, the next one being dormant for almost a
decade only to return with the fifth amendment in the year 2015 and then the final one , that is the
sixth amendment was passed in the year 2019, which is still very much seeped into the ramifications
of violence and severe disorder amongst the netizens expressing their anger and dissent towards the
implementation of this controversial Act of which the reverberations can be felt even today. With the
official declaration of its implementation, it is anticipated to become a full fledged cause of conflict
which might be seen in the near future.