Citizenship (Amendment) Bill after being cleared by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is on its way to become an Act shortly with the assent of the President of India. No other piece of legislation attracted such discussion and expression of divergent points of view as this piece of legislation.1955 Indian Citizenship Act provides for acquiring Indian citizenship by birth, descent, registration and naturalization, but the Act specifically prohibits conferring Indian citizenship on illegal immigrants.
Present Bill proposes to amend the Act to facilitate conferring citizenship on illegal immigrants of the minority religions from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before 31st December, 2019 due to persecution in those countries by the process of naturalization. Even here the normal period of 11 years of residence required to acquire citizenship by naturalisation process is proposed to be reduced to five years for illegal immigrants. This relaxation applies to minorities in those countries professing Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Christian, Buddhist and Jain faiths.
In a way, Citizenship Amendment Bill tries to grapple with some of the issues which are legacy of Partition of the country. It is an effort to take care of the minorities coming from both Bangladesh and Pakistan due to religious persecution. Though the 1950 Nehru-Liaquat Ali pact reiterated the need to protect the minorities in respective countries, it was breached more than it was observed in Pakistan.
Prominent Dalit leader Jogendra Nath Mandal who opted to stay back in Pakistan and went on to become a minister there. However, he came to India disillusioned with discrimination he faced on religious grounds. With blasphemy laws, life for minorities has become miserable in Pakistan as well as Bangladesh leading to a large-scale migration of these minorities to india. As late as September 2019 in Ghotki city of the Sindh province of Pakistan a teacher was attacked and a temple vandalised by mobs alleging blasphemy. Things are no better in Bangladesh either. Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, people of small minority communities, mostly Sikhs, also became victims of such discrimination.
The Bill seeks to provide citizenship to these categories of persons from these countries.
One of the main arguments advanced against the Bill is that it discriminates against Muslims from the above countries since it specifically excludes them to acquire Indian citizenship. But when the objective sought to be achieved by the amendment is to protect the minorities coming from these countries subjected to persecution and who cannot go back to their homeland, it is but natural that the amendment excludes majority communities of the three neighbouring countries.
Within the illegal immigrants a distinction was drawn based on certain objective criteria of persecution in favour of certain minorities persecuted in those countries. Those who came seeking greener pastures but are not subject to persecution within their country are excluded from the bill.
Discrimination is only with reference to the illegal immigrants and is not applicable to Indian citizens as such who are in any case treated equally irrespective of religion and caste as per the constitution.
The other point that is made out is what about the persecuted Muslim sections within these countries of Shias Ahmedias and Hazaras. This persecution is the result of internal contradictions within Islam itself in a country formed on the theory of religion as a nation. It is for the broader world and Islamic community to take care of it rather than to expect India to bear that burden as well.
The Act will definitely be tested in the courts of law. The opinion of legal luminaries is equally divided and what happens in the courts needs to be watched.
Government declared that this will not apply to the North-Eastern region covered by the inner line permit system and those which are included in the 6th schedule. Since most of Assam is not covered in any of the above two there are widespread protests against the Bill in Assam.
There is a fear that their identity may be lost due to influx of immigrants from Bangladesh. This is a genuine concern of the region and needs to be addressed. Reminder once more of the delicate balancing that needs to be done in a country like India where regional identities are very strong and need to be factored into decision making lest we land on unintended land mines.