Why is India’s Citizenship Modification Act so controversial? | India Election 2024 Information

The Indian authorities on Monday introduced the implementation of the Citizenship Modification Act (CAA), a regulation that was handed by parliament in 2019 however was not enforced till now.

This resolution on the CAA – whose passage in parliament had set off protests throughout the nation 5 years in the past over allegations of an anti-Muslim bias – comes weeks earlier than Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a 3rd time period in workplace by means of nationwide elections.

So what’s the regulation about, and why is it so controversial?

What’s the Citizenship Modification Act in India?

The Act, which was an modification to the 1955 Citizenship Act, was first launched within the parliament in July 2016 and handed in December 2019.

Earlier than the CAA, any international nationwide searching for Indian citizenship by means of naturalisation wanted to have spent 11 years in India to change into eligible.

The CAA expedites Indian citizenship functions of Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who escaped to India from non secular persecution in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan earlier than December 31, 2014. They change into eligible for citizenship in 5 years. Candidates from these faiths are eligible even when they’re at the moment residing in India with out legitimate visas or different required paperwork.

Residence Minister Amit Shah, a detailed confidant of Modi, posted on X that the regulation will allow minorities persecuted on non secular grounds in neighbouring international locations to accumulate Indian citizenship.

The Modi authorities at present notified the Citizenship (Modification) Guidelines, 2024.

These guidelines will now allow minorities persecuted on non secular grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to accumulate citizenship in our nation.

With this notification PM Shri @narendramodi Ji has…

— Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AmitShah) March 11, 2024

However what about Muslim asylum seekers?

Earlier than the CAA, India’s citizenship regulation didn’t make faith a determinant of an individual’s eligibility for an Indian passport. All these searching for naturalisation needed to present that they had been in India legally, and wanted to attend for a similar interval – 11 years – to change into eligible for citizenship.

That’s what the CAA modifications – introducing for the primary time in unbiased India’s historical past – a non secular take a look at for citizenship.

Muslim victims of non secular persecution in Pakistan (just like the Ahmadiyya), Afghanistan (the Hazara) or different neighbouring nations (such because the Rohingya in Myanmar), will nonetheless want to attend for 11 years earlier than they change into eligible for Indian citizenship. And in contrast to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians, they want legitimate documentation to justify their presence in India.

This, many authorized consultants have argued, violates Article 14 of the Indian Structure, which says: “The State shall not deny to any individual equality earlier than the regulation or the equal safety of the legal guidelines throughout the territory of India.”

In 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) printed a press release describing the regulation as discriminatory in opposition to Muslims.

However different communities – together with many who’ve lengthy sought refuge in India – have additionally been denied the advantages of the regulation.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty India mentioned in an X put up on Monday that the regulation goes in opposition to the constitutional values of equality and “legitimizes discrimination primarily based on faith”. Amnesty India added that the act additionally denies advantages to Tamils from Sri Lanka, and immigrants from international locations like Nepal and Bhutan.

The Citizenship Modification Act (CAA) is a discriminatory regulation that goes in opposition to the constitutional values of equality and worldwide human rights regulation. The notification of the foundations issued by the Ministry of Residence Affairs will make this divisive regulation operational from at present. #CAA

— Amnesty India (@AIIndia) March 11, 2024

In 2019, after the regulation was handed, giant protests broke out throughout India. Violent clashes erupted in New Delhi. Greater than 100 folks had been killed throughout the nation, principally Muslims. A whole bunch of others had been injured.

How can beneficiaries get quicker citizenship?

The Indian authorities introduced that these eligible below the CAA can apply for Indian citizenship utilizing a web based portal, launched by Shah’s house ministry on Tuesday.

A committee headed by the Director of Census Operations will evaluation functions, a authorities notification on Monday mentioned. The panel can have seven different members.

What’s subsequent?

There are greater than 200 petitions in opposition to the regulation nonetheless pending earlier than Indian courts even because the CAA has come into impact.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Celebration authorities has denied that the regulation is discriminatory in the direction of Muslims, arguing that it solely seeks to guard these escaping non secular persecution. An announcement launched by the Residence Ministry mentioned “many misconceptions have been unfold” concerning the regulation and its implementation was delayed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

On the similar time, critics worry that the Hindu majoritarian BJP can even search to implement one other initiative, the Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC), which goals to establish and deport immigrants in India with out legitimate papers.

Mixed, the CAA and NRC might enable the federal government to expel all of these deemed “unlawful” migrants – after which enable Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians to re-enter, whereas denying the identical alternative to Muslims.

BJP leaders have beforehand made remarks discriminating in opposition to Muslim refugees. Residence Minister Shah has, previously, known as Bangladeshi immigrants “termites”, “infiltrators” and a risk to nationwide safety.

What’s the NRC and the way is it linked to the CAA?

The NRC is a register that’s meant to establish and deport “unlawful” immigrants.

It has solely been carried out in India’s northeast state of Assam thus far, the place practically two million folks, together with Hindus and Muslims, had been not noted of the citizenship record in August 2019. The BJP has declared its intent to implement the NRC nationwide.

What has the response been thus far?

Protests have erupted in elements of India on account of the CAA implementation.

College students of Jamia Millia Islamia, a college in New Delhi, informed Al Jazeera that protests broke out within the institute and police arrived. Safety forces performed flag marches in areas close to Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, which turned a hub of protests over the CAA in 2019 and 2020.

Critics have additionally identified how the regulation has intentionally been carried out proper as elections are about to happen. Yogendra Yadav, a political scientist and activist who was intently related to the anti-CAA protests, informed Al Jazeera that this transfer of voter polarisation by the BJP earlier than elections is unsurprising.

Jairam Ramesh, spokesperson for the opposition Congress social gathering posted on X: “After searching for 9 extensions for the notification of the foundations, the timing proper earlier than the elections is evidently designed to polarise the elections, particularly in West Bengal and Assam”.

The opposition Communist Celebration of India (Marxist), which governs the southern state of Kerala, known as for state-wide protests on Tuesday in opposition to the CAA.

Activists from a number of organisations in Assam, together with the All Assam College students’ Union (AASU), burned copies of the regulation, calling for a statewide shutdown on Tuesday. Totally different scholar teams are organising related protests in different regional states, together with Meghalaya and Tripura. Many of those teams are against the CAA not due to its allegedly discriminatory nature however as a result of they oppose the legalisation of citizenship standing for any international nationals.