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Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB):

Citizenship Amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament on December 9, 2019 by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah.

Lok Sabha passed the bill on December 9-10, 2019 midnight.

Purpose of the bill:

The main purpose CAB is to protect the refugees from the neighboring countries around India, because India believes in secularism, i.e., India will treat every people equal, irrespective of the race or religion.

Key points about CAB:

1. CAB will provide Indian Citizenship to non Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

2. The Citizenship is provided only for minority people like Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, Jain and Christian immigrants who are forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to ill treatment or harassment on the ground of religion.

3. These minority groups have come escaping harsh treatment in Muslim-majority nations like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Eligibility for Citizenship:

4. The applicant should have entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

5. He/She should have stayed in India for minimum 6 years.

6. He/She should be a non Muslim (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian) refugee from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and should have lived in India without any documentation(illegally).

Controversies of the bill:

“The Bill violates Article 14 of the Indian Constitution — the Right to Equality” says the Opposition parties. According to the bill, they have included only few refugees and left many other refugee groups.

7. The Bill left Ahmedia Muslim groups and Shia Muslims who also faces discrimination in Pakistan.

8. Rohingya, a group of Muslims and some Hindus face harassment in Burma.

9. Hindu and Christian Tamils face discrimination in neighboring Sri Lanka.

These groups are not considered in Citizenship Amendment Bill.

The bill seeks to legally establish Muslims as second-class citizens of India by providing favorable treatment to other religious groups. This bill violates the Article 14 of Indian Constitution, the fundamental right of equality to all people.

Exceptional States from CAB:

The CAB will not be applicable for tribal-dominated regions in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram and not applicable to Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram states because they have the inner-line permit regime(The Inner Line Permit is a document that Indian citizens from other states require to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and most of Nagaland. This is to protect the indigenous people of the state from outside migrants).

10. Manipur, a North Eastern State got inner-line permit recently and escaped from CAB.

The bill didn’t say anything about Sikkim state. There is no inner-line permit for Sikkim.

National Register of Citizen (NCR) has been carried out in Assam and it is now planned to implement all over India. According to Assam Accord, either the resident or their ancestor should have been entered Assam on or before March 24, 1971 to get registered as the citizen irrespective of religion. If CAB is implemented now then NCR will have no purpose or CAB is a violation of NCR.

Why North Eastern State are protesting against CAB?

The northeastern state people feels that permanent settlement of illegal immigrants will disturb the region’s demography(indigenous population) and further burden resources and decrease employment opportunities for indigenous people.