The Indian government on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Although the law was passed by Congress in 2019, it has not been implemented until now.
The decision on the CAA, passed by Parliament five years ago sparking protests across the country over allegations of anti-Muslim bias, comes weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a third term in office in a national election. I was disappointed.
So what is this law about and why is it so controversial?
What is India's Citizenship Amendment Act?
The Act, which amends the Citizenship Act of 1955, was first introduced in Parliament in July 2016 and passed in December 2019.
Prior to the CAA, foreigners seeking Indian citizenship through naturalization had to have spent 11 years in India to qualify.
The CAA applies to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who have fled to India from religious persecution in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan by December 31, 2014. Nationality applications are being expedited. They can become eligible for citizenship within five years. Applicants from these religions are eligible even if they are currently residing in India without a valid visa or other required documents.
Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Modi, wrote in a post on X that the law would allow ethnic minorities persecuted for religious reasons in neighboring countries to obtain Indian citizenship.
The Modi government today notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.
These rules allow minorities who are persecuted for religious reasons in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to obtain citizenship in our country.
By this notification PM Shri @narendramodi Ji…
— Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AmitShah) March 11, 2024
But what about Muslim asylum seekers?
Prior to the enactment of the CAA, India's citizenship law did not make religion a determining factor in eligibility for an Indian passport. All those seeking naturalization had to prove they were legally in India and had to wait the same amount of time (11 years) to become eligible for citizenship.
That was the change in the CAA, which introduced a religious test for citizenship for the first time in independent India's history.
Muslim victims of religious persecution in Pakistan (such as the Ahmadiyah), Afghanistan (the Hazaras), or other neighboring countries (such as the Rohingya in Myanmar) still have 11 years to qualify for Indian citizenship. have to wait. And unlike Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians, they require valid documentation to justify their presence in India.
Many legal experts argue that this violates Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which states: “The State shall not extend to any person within the territory of India equality before the law or equal protection of the laws.'' It is stipulated that the same shall not be denied.”
In 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement calling the law discriminatory against Muslims.
But other communities, including many who have long been refugees in India, are also denied the benefits of the law.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty India said in Monday's XPost that the law goes against the constitutional values of equality and “legitimizes discrimination on the basis of religion.” Amnesty India added that the law also denies benefits to Tamils from Sri Lanka and immigrants from countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a discriminatory law that goes against constitutional values of equality and international human rights law. As per the regulation notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the partition law will come into force from today. #CAA
— Amnesty India (@AIIndia) March 11, 2024
After the law was passed in 2019, massive protests erupted across India. Violent clashes broke out in New Delhi. More than 100 people were killed across the country, most of them Muslims. Hundreds of others were injured.
How can beneficiaries obtain citizenship faster?
The Indian government has announced that those eligible under the CAA can apply for Indian citizenship using an online portal launched by the Shah Home Ministry on Tuesday.
A government notification on Monday said a committee chaired by the Director-General of Census Operations will examine the applications. Seven other members will be added to the panel.
What's next?
Even after the CAA came into force, more than 200 petitions against the law are pending in Indian courts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government denies that the law discriminates against Muslims, saying it is only aimed at protecting people fleeing religious persecution. A statement from the Home Office said there were “many misconceptions” about the law and that its implementation had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the same time, critics say the Hindu-majority Bharatiya Janata Party is implementing another initiative called the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which aims to identify and deport Indian immigrants without valid documents. I am concerned that this may be the case.
Combined, the CAA and NRC would allow the government to expel all people deemed to be “illegal” immigrants, then allow Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians to re-enter, while Muslims Christians could be denied similar opportunities.
BJP leaders have previously made discriminatory statements against Muslim refugees. Home Minister Shah has in the past called Bangladeshi immigrants “termites”, “infiltrators” and a threat to national security.
What is NRC? How is it related to CAA?
The NRC is a registry designed to identify and deport “illegal” immigrants.
So far, the NRC has only been implemented in India's northeastern state of Assam, where about 2 million people, including Hindus and Muslims, were removed from the citizenship list in August 2019. The Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed its intention to implement the NRC across the country.
What have been the reactions so far?
Protests erupted in parts of India following the implementation of the CAA.
Students at Jamia Millia Islami University in New Delhi told Al Jazeera that a protest broke out inside the school and police arrived. Security forces held a flag march in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh neighborhood, which was the epicenter of protests over the CAA in 2019 and 2020.
Critics also point out how the law was intentionally implemented poorly with elections around the corner. Yogendra Yadav, a political scientist and activist who has been closely associated with the anti-CAA protests, told Al Jazeera that this move by the Bharatiya Janata Party to polarize voters ahead of elections was not surprising.
Opposition Congress Party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh posted on X: “After seeking nine extensions of the rule notification, the timing right before the elections is clearly designed to polarize the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam.”
The opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist), which rules the southern state of Kerala, on Tuesday called for state-wide protests against the CAA.
Activists from several organizations in Assam, including the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), on Tuesday burnt copies of the law and demanded a state-wide shutdown. Various student groups have organized similar protests in other regional states such as Meghalaya and Tripura. Many of these groups oppose her CAA not because of its allegedly discriminatory nature, but because they oppose the legalization of citizenship status for foreigners. be.