The United Nations and US government have expressed concerns regarding the discriminatory nature of the newly notified Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that seeks to give citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs fleeing religious persecution in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The law excludes Muslims, even though several Muslim communities such as the Shia Muslims and Ahmadiyya Muslims are religiously persecuted minorities in these countries.
The law also excludes Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, dubbed as the "world's most persecuted minority" by the UN, and the Tamil community from Sri Lanka who are an ethnic and religious minority there.
"As we said in 2019, we are concerned that India's Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (CAA) is fundamentally discriminatory in nature and in breach of India's international human rights obligations," a spokesperson of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told Reuters.
He added that the office was studying whether the CAA’s implementation rules go against international human rights law.
The US government has also shared similar concerns and informed that it will closely monitor the implementation of the law.
"We are concerned about the notification of the Citizenship Amendment Act on March 11. We are closely monitoring how this act will be implemented," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said, reported Reuters.
"Respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law for all communities are fundamental democratic principles," he added.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in 2019 but the PM Modi-led BJP government failed to come up with clear rules or guidelines regarding its implementation for four years. The government cited large-scale protests and the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons for the delay in the implementation of the law.
The rules were notified on Monday, with the law coming into effect.
The law redefines the provisions for citizenship in India based on religion. The opposition parties in India, human rights activists, and critics have argued that the evident exclusion of Muslims from citizenship provision is a violation of the constitution.
"I do not like CAA because they have kept five communities on the list... but excluded Muslims from it, as if they do not have any contribution to the country,” said TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Kerala Chief Minister and CPIM leader Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated that the law will not be implemented in his state.
"The government has repeatedly stated that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which treats Muslim minorities as second-class citizens, will not be implemented in Kerala. That remains the position. All of Kerala will stand united in opposing this communally divisive law," he said.
Pointing out that the Act discriminates against Tamil minorities in Srilanka, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said, “Tamil Nadu government will not give any opportunity in any manner to implement the CAA, which is also against pluralism, secularism, minority communities, and the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.”
Human Rights body Amnesty India dubbed the law as discriminatory and going against the Indian constitution and international human rights laws.
"The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is a discriminatory law that goes against the constitutional values of equality and international human rights law. The notification of the rules issued by the (Union) Ministry of Home Affairs will make this divisive law operational from today," it said.
The Rights body also criticized the government for its crackdown on peaceful protests against the law in 2019.
"The government in 2019 responded to peaceful anti-CAA protests with arbitrary detention under draconian laws and excessive force. We urge the authorities to respect the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful association and assembly while responding to peaceful protests," it said.
The opposition parties also criticized the timing of the notification of CAA, as the big move has come just before the Lok Sabha polls.
"After seeking nine extensions for the notification of the rules, the timing right before the elections is evidently designed to polarize the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam. It also appears to be an attempt to manage the headlines after the Supreme Court's severe strictures on the Electoral Bonds Scandal," said Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh.
"BJP-RSS links citizenship with religion and our Constitution doesn't make religion as the criteria for citizenship... Now on the eve of elections, why suddenly this government has decided to implement CAA? The rules are being framed to divide the people, create tension among the people at the time of elections," said D Raja, General Secretary of CPI.
In the wake of protests and boiling criticism, the Home Ministry on Tuesday, released a circular saying that Muslim migrants from the above-mentioned countries will be granted citizenship through naturalization under existing laws.
"CAA does not cancel the naturalization laws. Therefore, any person including the Muslim migrants from any foreign country, seeking to be an Indian citizen, can apply for the same under the existing laws," the ministry said.
The ministry did not however explain why, if it recognizes the problem of Muslim migrants, have chosen to exclude them from the new citizenship law.
The government was also silent on the National Register for Citizenship (NRC), which if implemented with CAA can be a lethal combination for Muslims in India, according to critics. This duo will force every Indian to prove that they are not an 'illegal immigrant' in the country. As Muslims are exempted from the new provision for citizenship under CAA, they are at a higher risk of losing citizenship.
The ministry in its circular -which was released on its site and deleted within hours- assured that no Indian citizen will have to prove their citizenship and that Indian Muslims do not have to fear losing their citizenship under the new law.
But this doesn't sit well with another promise made by Home Minister Amit Shah himself in 2019 while speaking on BJP’s plan to implement CAA.
“Understand the chronology, first we will bring Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and after that we will bring National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the NRC will not only be for Bengal but for the entire country,” he had said in April 2019.
