The central government Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship Amendement Act (CAA) and notified the rules.
These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, will enable people eligible under CAA to apply for Indian citizenship, the Union Home Ministry said on microblogging site X.
The act, passed by Parliament in December 2019, will allow the government to grant citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who faced religious persecution.
Migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — who came to India till 31 December, 2014 without any documents would be eligible for citizenship.
A spokesperson of the ministry, which has the responsibility of notification and implementation of the act, announced that applications would be submitted online to a dedicated web portal.
The law could not come into effect four years after it was passed – despite the President’s nod the very next day – as rules had to be notified for its implementation.
According to the manual of Parliamentary procedures, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of the Presidential assent or the government should seek extension from the committees on subordinate legislation in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Since 2020, the Union Home Ministry has taken extensions in regular intervals from Parliamentary committees for framing the rules.
There have been several statements by top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the government would notify the rules of the act before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
However, as was the case when the act was passed, the notification too has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has strongly pushed back against this act, called the government’s move to notify rules weeks before the general elections are due “political”. She warned of major protests in her state.
“This is what the BJP does. As soon as elections are near, they start spreading information through news channels and then bring it to people. Channels are running that CAA will be implemented by tonight. This law was passed in 2020. 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,” Banerjee said at a press conference on Monday.
“We were waiting to see how the rules are framed. We have not received the notification. We do not know what the rules say. After seeing all the rules and reading the entire report, I will speak on it in detail tomorrow,” she added
She questioned why these people were not citizens before. “The PM was elected on the basis of the votes by these people — how can they not be citizens? If they cancel the citizenship of anyone through CAA and NRC (National Register of Citizens), we will not be quiet. We will strongly protest,” the Bengal chief minister said.
The act had sparked widespread protests in the country in 2019, in particular by the opposition and chief ministers of non-BJP states. More than 100 people were killed in the protests.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh highlighted Monday the gap between the passing of the act and the notification governing it. He accused the government of timing it such that it polarised the upcoming election.
Last month, however, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that no one could stop the CAA as it was the law of the land. He had accused accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading people on the issue.
At the ET NOW Global Business Summit, he said granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring countries was a promise of the Congress leadership too.
“When the Partition happened – Hindus, Buddhists, Christians – all wanted to come to India after facing religious persecution there. They (Congress leaders) had promised to give citizenship to these people, saying all of you are welcome. But the (Congress) leaders went back on their word,” Shah said.
The Home Minister said he wanted to make it clear that the CAA is not a law to snatch anyone’s citizenship.
“Our Muslim brothers are being instigated on the issue of CAA,” he had said, adding, “CAA can’t snatch anyone’s citizenship as the law does not have that provision. CAA has been enacted to give citizenship to those people who have come from Bangladesh and Pakistan after facing religious persecution. No one should oppose this law,” he had said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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