The CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT BILL received President’s assent on 10th of January,2020 and will now be called CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT, 2019.
This Act provides that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December 2014 will not be deemed illegal immigrants if they are found with no legal documents.
This has been a big deal in India and also for international media if I may say since the day it was passed in the Rajya Sabha with 125 in favor and 99 against it. It is enough big to captivate prime-time debates of news channels and protest all over India. The protest got so violent that the government had to shut internet services in some areas and also imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in some.
credit: The Hindu
What is the protest all about?
- From North-Eastern Indian’s point of view- this act provides relief to illegal immigrants and paved their way to get citizenship as soon as possible by reducing the minimum term to apply for citizenship from 11 years to 5 years. Since this part of the country is already deprived of the Center’s attention, they don’t want to share their limited resources with people coming from another land that too illegally.
- From The Muslim Community’s point of view- Muslims are concerned because they think if they fail to be included in the National Register of Citizens(Which may roll out in recent future as claimed by”Amit Shah”, Union Home Minister of India in his speech). As some of them may fail to provide documents advocating their citizenship, due to some unfortunate reasons, they will be considered as illegal immigrants or foreigners.
- From Protester’s point of View-There are students, scholars and professors from some prestigious universities and also people from Bollywood and other sectors have come out in protest of this act as they think that this act is unconstitutional because it doesn’t include Muslims and also do not cover illegal immigrants from other countries which share border with India like Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
credit: The Economic Times
Also, many academicians came in support of this act and also many support rallies were held in support for this act.
What Central government is saying?
The central government has released many videos, statements and posts on social media, communicating with people busting myths and rumors about this act. It says that no citizen, including Muslims, have to worry about this act, as it is not going to affect them in any case.
Here is a link to CAA ,2019 for reference: http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/214646.pdf
credit:Times of India
PRIYANKAR'S OPINON 