Introduction
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 was passed on December 11, 2019, and came into force on 10th January 2020. Citizenship can be conceptualized as an estimation of a person that is recognized under the custom or law of a sovereign state or the belonging state. This legislation amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 to ensure citizenship of India to Hindu and other religious minorities such as Buddhists, Sikhs, Jain, Parsi including Christian who fled from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh before 31st December 2014. The ruling party, Bhartiya Janta Party stated that[i] non-Muslim religious minorities often suffer from oppression and discrimination in neighbouring Muslim countries and thus provides citizenship to them on humanitarian grounds.
Act Violates the Constitution of India
The step of Amendment taken by the law-makers is purely unconstitutional which was even pointed out in 2015 when it was made public. The Act breaks the fundamental principle of the Constitution, stating citizenship being open to all without discrimination based on religion, language, race, ethnicity, or gender. This amendment allows illegal migrants to apply for citizenship provided in the following conditions are fulfilled[ii]:
- If they came to India before 31st December 2014.
- They got exemptions from the Passport Act, 1920 and Foreigners Act, 1946.
- They belong to the state of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
- They are from the community of Hindu, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jain, Parsi and Christian.
As it is mentioned in the Preamble of the Constitution, that equality of status and opportunity should be provided regardless of religion, language, race, ethnicity, or gender. The intrinsic value of secularism, equality, and non-discrimination enshrined in the Preamble are ideals of the Constitution. Additionally, Justice to social, economic, and political should be protected to which every act of the government shall conform. Therefore, the Citizenship Amendment Act violates not only the ‘secular’ fundamental of the constitution but also proposes an unfavourable treatment for the people depending on their religion. Thus, this is a direct threat to the Preamble of the country.[iii]
Implications of the Act
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 compiled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for India is a threat to the citizenship of document less Muslims. UNICEF figures from 2012 report states that about 40% of urban births and 65% of rural births are not registered in India [iv]. By this we can visualize the picture of discrimination in the country that will take place. Likewise, in Assam majority of people do not have necessary documents in the recently conducted NRC exercise under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The legislation not only prosecutes to Muslims who fled to India because of war or prosecution but also to residing Muslims who live in India without any documentation to prove their existence of citizenship in the country.
Protest against the Act
Amidst of pandemic, protesters of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens were forced to suspend demonstrations against this draconian law.[v] Protesters of Assam and Northwestern states do not want that citizenship would be granted to any refugee or immigrant regardless of religion because they are in fear as it would alter their geographic land and culture. These protests have taken place in at least 94 districts across 14 states of the country which also lead to thousands of arrests and deaths.
One of the protesters said in an interview to Wire:[vi] “This dark law that they have brought in (referring to the CAA), what was the need to bring it? We just want that our prime minister withdraws this law…We are protesting peacefully, please let us. And if you have so much trouble with it, and then withdraw it, and we will all go back to our respective houses…Why does the RSS keep demanding that we must go back to Pakistan? Why will we go to Pakistan? If we wanted to go, we would have left with Jinnah. India is our birthplace. We will live here and die here. We will not move from here. You need to stop dreaming that Muslims will leave India. Modi Ji, stop seeing this dream. Let the country function according to the constitution.”
Protesters have raised voice against arbitrariness and police crackdown in universities to suppress down the protesters. Also, few protesters along with their children were on a hunger strike at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. As of 10 February 2020, no government officials came to visit the site or met with these hunger-striking protesters.
Conclusion
The Muslim migrants coming from these three countries, namely Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will not get Indian citizenship. The law of the country does not segregate religion on any basis but this act is against the backdrop of the citizenship provisions of the Indian Constitution.
The Citizenship Amendment Act is only a part of the problem with Indian citizenship law. The legislation reversed the burden of proof that has been in place since 1939 needs to be reevaluated in the Indian context. The 2004 amendment to the Citizenship Act, which did away with citizenship by birth, needs to recheck. Dreamers, who arrived in India as minors with their parents, need a safe harbor. The procedural problems with the foreigner’s tribunals need to be re-examined.
REFERENCES:
[i] Hilal Ahmed, Making Sense of India’s Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, Process, Politics, Protest, Asie.Vision, No.114, Ifri, June 2020
[ii] Citizenship (Amendment) Act: An Unconstitutional Act, https://deccanherald.com/specials/sunday-spotlight/citizenship-amendment-act-an-unconstitutional-act-785638.html
[iii] Ritumbra Manuvie, Explaining the Impact of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338140129_Explaining_the_impact_of_CITIZENSHIP_AMENDMENT_ACT_FAQs_for_the_uninitiated#read
[iv] United Nations Children’s Fund, Every Child’s Birth Right: Inequities and Trends in Birth Registration, UNICEF, 2013, https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Birth_Registration_lores_final_24.pdf
[v] Singh, Amrita, “Not just CAA, It’s a struggle against authoritarianism: Academics unite against police brutality, The Caravan, https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/caa-jamia-amu-student-protests-police-academics-statement
[vi] How Delhi Police Turned Anti-CAA WhatsApp Group Chats Into Riots ‘Conspiracy’, The Wire, https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-police-activists-whatsapp-group
