Decoding of Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019

For a couple of days, we come across the word CAB called Citizenship Amendment Bill and there are escalations across the country over assent of the contentious bill in both houses. Let us get into the ins and outs of the CAB and its fallouts after its approval in the parliament.

What is Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019?

The crux of the CAB is to make changes in the 1955 Act of Citizenship Bill which says that an illegal immigrant should not eligible for Indian citizenship. The bill directly gives wings to the illegal migrants especially Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists and Jains from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh by granting Indian Citizenship to the people who reside in India on or before 31 Dec 2014. So simply

• CAB grants Indian citizenship to Non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
• Reduction of Number of residency years from 11–5 under the naturalization
• Those people eligible for CAB who resides in India on or before 31 Dec 2014

Who are illegal immigrants?

Illegal migrants are those people who entered the country without proper verification of documents or the people who stay beyond the permitted time.

What are the main reasons that the NDA government citing behind its proposal?

Imperatively, the proposal of the bill aimed at reviving the lives of religiously persecuted Non-Muslim communities in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan as the government believed those communities were part of united India before the segregation of Pakistan and India in 1947 on the religious basis. After isolation, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh have an accord to follow specific state religion called Islamic, As a result, these communities have been facing religious persecution which means people who belong to Non-Muslim communities are prohibited from following their faith, propagating their religion since ages. So according to the government, people from these communities migrate to India in order to save their lives, conserve their religion as well as its stringent practicing. The notable point here is they have been perpetuating their living in our country even though after the expiration of travel documents.

Why CAB proposal takes place?

The CAB is one of the election promises of the NDA government which was passed earlier in January 2019 ahead of general elections but unable to get its approval from the Rajya Sabha then. The former bill sought to grant citizenship to Non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afganistan, and Bangladesh and along with reducing the cutoff criteria to have a citizenship India from 11years to 7 years.

But the newly passed bill relaxes cutoff from 11 years to 5 years.

Who and what makes it so contentious and wildfire?

Some of the opposition parties like CPI(M), TMC, Congress strictly opposing the bill since its inception as they claimed that citizenship should not be given on the basis of religion which indirectly violating Right to Equality- Article -14 of the Indian Constitution.

• Other minority communities like jews, Rohingya, Uyghurs are excluded
• Hindus of other nations like Sri Lanka, Maldives exempted
• The negation of NRC is futile
• Against International Refugee Law

Why Northeastern states protesting against CAB?

Amid the bill approval, there are chaotic protests pervading across the northern eastern states — Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim as they thought that the permanent settlement of the illegal migrants perturbs the regions demography along with ethnic living, culture, traditions, economic resources as well as employment opportunities of indigenous residents.

However, the government promised to provide safeguards for Northeastern states by exempting tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram as these states come under the 6th schedule of the constitution.

Centre also assured that area encompasses the “Inner Line Permit” recognized under “Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation(BEFR) 1873”

So if people from other states wish to visit these states, they need to get Inner Line Permit, which is a system introduced for border areas by BEFR 1873.

But they cannot settle in these states even with ILP

Why Assam got so furious over CAB?

Another notable objection from the protestors is that the CAB nullifying the ASSAM ACCORD ACT 1985, which states that 24 March 1971 is the standard criteria for the banishment of illegal immigrants from the country irrespective of religion but it sets the new deadline of 31 December 2014.

So Assamese intimidate that CAB is overruling the 1985 Assam Accord Act and they contemplating that it will negate the effect of the National Registry of Citizens and grant citizenship on illegal immigrants. That’s the reason Assam furious over CAB

What is the sole aim of the Assam Accord Act 1985?

In 1979, Mangaldoi Loksabha by-poll there was an insurmountable upsurge in voters because of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants which led to the massive protests and violence in the state where 885 people were killed over 6years. So Centres halted this agitation by introducing the Assam Accord Act in the year 1985 where it denotes that Illegal immigrants irrespective of religion from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan should abandon the state after 24 March 1971. under this act, the National Registry of Citizens(NRC) instituted to repatriate illegal immigrants who do not opt for citizenship.

What is the NRC issue?

National Registry of Citizens instituted under Assam accord act with the sole aim of identifying and repatriating the illegal immigrants who denied citizenship but the saddest thing to note here is that most of the indigenous tribes and Hindus did not have the citizenship then. So Assamese intimidate that, CAB will make NRC redundant and grant citizenship to illegal immigrants.

But Assam Gana Parishad says that clause 6 of the Assam Accord will safeguard the state from the adverse impact of CAB

Clause 6 of the Assam Accord pertaining to constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to insulate and promulgate the social, linguistic and cultural heritage of the Assamese.

What are the final words about CAB?

After scrutinizing the ins and outs of the CAB, it is discerning that the bill purely concentrates on upbringing the persecuted Non-Muslim immigrants from the Islamic states.

PS: let me know if I made any invalid as well as wrong points and expecting valid comments on this from the readers.

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