The Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA, is a law passed by the Indian Parliament in 2019. It aims to amend the country’s citizenship laws, defines illegal immigrants and lays down the rules and prerequisites for applying for Indian citizenship. It allows minorities of six communities, namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, from India’s neighboring countries — Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Bangladesh — who entered India before 31 December 2014 to get citizenship more easily on the grounds of religious persecution.
The introduction of this bill led to mass protests from students, civil society, and the opposition parties as religion for the first time was made a test of Indian citizenship. The most notable was a 100-plus day protest in Shaheen Bagh, a working-class Muslim neighbourhood in the country’s capital, New Delhi with Muslim women at the forefront of this protest.
Four years after the CAA’s initial introduction and passing, the rules were brought into effect in March 2024.
Being an Indian… I do want the persecuted people of those three countries should gain citizenship in India…
I want to share an experience with my friend…
He asked me why are you opposing the act I said him its against the constitution.
Friend: This act is just for people who are persecuted in these three countries so why you are opposing it don’t you want them to be safe here.
Me: I’m not opposing the act the good thing by government but look what the finance minister of Assam said the only Hindus of Non-NRC list will be given citizenship. So what we need to understand with this.
Against all this we know the importance of making NRC in India seeing the terrorism but when the countries economy is going down whats the thing of investing thousands kf crores in those survey…better bring a technology to India with that money
What your column has missed is the fact that CAA has been specifically designed in the long run to encourage more and more Hindus from the 3 countries to immigrate to India even while more and more muslims of India will be rendered stateless across India forcing them to emigrate to Pak or other muslim countrIt is a very sinister discriminatory law to revive 2- nation theory of making India the Hindu Rashtra and not the plural land envisaged by our freedom fighters.
Very beginning we must think which cause the Govt. to enact this CAA. No petition submitted by any state govt. or any political party except BJP to formulate this kind of Act on the basis of religion. BJP target this Act in its manifesto
to get vote banks of Hindus and not on the basis humanitarian aspects. BJP always try to minimise vote banks of muslim which always stand against BJP. The CAA simply can do this. For example in Assam Mr.Ram and Mr. Rahim lives as on 2014. Both have no documents to prove their nationality. As Ram being Hindu become eligible for Indian citizenship by virtue of CAA as he need not to be produced any document but Rahim became infiltrades as he is Muslim. To get citizenship he has to apply and wait for years, is it correct. The rightful muslim citizen on 2014 became infiltrades on 2019. Is it justifiable, and hence muslim on streets to sustain their legitimate rights.
The present agitation and protests are less likely to be the reasons narrated by the writer. It is a politically stirred and invited by the vested interest groups and political parties to gain mileage in elections.
One-sided article, perhaps because the author chooses to keep one eye closed. Reasons:
1. Nobody knows when there will be a nation-wide NRC. Amit Shah has only said there will be one.
2. Amit Shah has NOT said, as the author suggests, that the NRC will be like Assam’s. See the last few episodes of Shekhar Gupta’s Cut the Clutter.
3. It is impossible that the NRC will be implemented, given that most of the states are not ruled by BJP — Rajasthan, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, WB, and Kerala will not implement it for sure. And it NRC cannot happen if half the country doesn’t implement it. See the last few episodes of Shekhar Gupta’s Cut the Clutter.
4. It is downright stupid to believe that any government–whatever its intentions–can tell 170 million people that they are not citizens of the country.
By the learned writer’s view 70% (assuming rural) of India cannot provide documents – including Hindus. But 70% of this sample (Hindus) will get citizenships by this new law.! Amazing logic!!
This is a half baked article. Isn’t it true that before the 2019 amendments, there is no provision for an illegal immigrant of any religion to get citizenship in India? And your conclusion is deeply flawed because ‘all others barring Muslims will be saved by the 2019 citizenship law’ will not include any person who is not from the 3 countries. Which means everyone irrespective of the religion.
Bismillah,Inshallah,Allah Hu akbar are arabic words which means Bismillah means i begin in the name of Allah which every muslim has to say before eating his food or drinking water. Alhamdul lillah is also an arabic word,praising Great God Allah or all praise be to Allah for granting boons or removing troubles.Allah Hu Akbar means God is Great,usually used for surmounting difficulties or unexpected Gains etc.So you see,all those arabic words are rehearsed by many muslims all over the world,many times a day. They are basically meant to keep muslims closer to Great Allah,to whom every Muslim/Human being has to go for accountability in the next world.
“But Muslims, having no country to accept them and India having no provisions to grant them citizenship, could inevitably end up in detention camps.”
As a point of clarity. Why would India not have any provisions to grant them citizenship? If they can demonstrate that they’ve been in India for 11 of the last 14 years, won’t they automatically qualify for Naturalization?
It would have also been useful if the author had gone into the NRC appeals process in some detail, especially given the fact that reverse migration of self-identified Muslims across the border into Bangladesh has been slowly building up over the last few months.
Finally, the author has a legal background, and would clearly be aware of the need to use precise language. One could end up anywhere, but inevitably one would end up somewhere.
There is no such thing as “automatic Naturalization” anywhere, even if you have lived in that country for 100 years WITHOUT A BREAK OF EVEN ONE DAY! You could still be turned down, WITHOUT EVEN YOU BEING GIVEN A REASON FOR IT! YES, YO U QUALIFY FOR NATURALIZATION, BUT YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO IT! IT IS LIKE VISA FOR A COUNTRY. Your application fior it may be good, but still it could be turned down! No reason given!
This country was going good – with all religions and communities happy. May our progeny forgive us for the mess we are leaving for them.