The most recent criticism in regard to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) enacted by both Houses of Parliament is that it isn’t the CAA that is the problem. It is its combination with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which presents an evil where Muslims will suffer.

Numerous articles and social media posts by citizenry has put forth an illustration of how this combined effect creates an evil outcome. This article will dissect that illustration. Unlike most analyses which contain bland assertions without any links to relevant documents, this article contains links for the reader’s independent review.

Lastly, this analysis will also offer suggestions to the Modi government to make this process robust.

The CAA Pool

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It is critical to mention that, before this dissection, the CAA must be fully understood in regard to what it does and doesn’t do given the extent of rumours and misrepresentations floating around.

[The law can be read here whereas the author has extensively elaborated upon the CAA and its contours in previous articles – click here and here.

At the cost of repetition, it is useful to outline two vital aspects of the CAA.

1. Members of six religions, that is Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains, Sikhs and Hindus fleeing three countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh can apply for Indian citizenship if they can demonstrate a physical presence in India of five years as opposed to the regular eleven years mentioned in the Citizenship Act, 1955. The offence of illegal migration into India is pardoned.

2. They can only get this benefit if they entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

For the sake of brevity, we will collectively call these beneficiaries members of ‘CAA Pool’.

Illustration deployed by critics

The illustration deployed by critics, quite simply, is this:

If the NRC is implemented inefficiently and results in a situation where two Indian citizens – a Hindu and a Muslim – are determined as ‘non-Indians’ due to lack of documentation (we’ll call it the ‘NRC Net’), the Hindu could still save himself from harassment by entering the CAA Pool. The Muslim will suffer. He would likely be sent to a detention centre and would have to appear before tribunals to prove his Indian nationality.

Analysis

(i) Nationwide NRC not yet announced

At the outset, it is useful to mention the obvious. No nationwide NRC has been announced yet and, hence, any comparison with the requirements/criteria of Assam NRC is plainly misguided. Assam NRC is an exercise guided by an entirely different set of circumstances. In fact, Amit Shah himself suggested that the Assam NRC has demonstrated shortcomings which will guide the Modi government in formulating the nationwide NRC procedure.

(ii) Chronology