Written by Anusha YG
On 11 December 2019, following a six-hour debate, the Rajya Sabha followed the Lok Sabha in passing the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), with a 125–99 vote. Subject to a lot of controversy, critics have slammed the bill as undermining the country’s constitution, and people from opposition parties, minority groups, academic spheres, and even a US federal panel have claimed it is discriminatory against Muslims.
Put forward by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955, which laid the rules for Indian citizenship. The amended bill, which will become a law after the President’s assent, will mainly allow non-Muslim minorities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, and Parsis — from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to obtain citizenship in India.
Under India’s current laws, illegal migrants cannot apply for Indian citizenship. Thus, if the bill becomes a law, people who have crossed the border illegally or overstayed their visa will be able to apply for Indian citizenship. It also relaxes the conditions for ‘Citizenship by Naturalization’, by reducing the required duration of residency from the existing 11 years to just six years of residency in the past 14 years. Further, should a migrant become an Indian citizen, any legal proceedings against them of illegal migration will cease.
The government thus aims to protect those ‘forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the ground of religion’ from the proceedings of illegal migration through this bill, provided the person entered India on or before 31 December 2014.
And there begins the inconsistency.
The bill does not protect all religious minorities, nor does it apply to all of India’s neighbors. India shares international land borders with seven sovereign countries and maritime borders with two, and yet only three countries have been included. The countries not included have their own set of religious minorities fleeing to India, and yet fail to be counted under the bill.
For example, the country that usually has its manufacturing sector commented upon, China, is facing criticism over its persecution of Uighur Muslim minority groups. Huge numbers of Muslims are said to be in internment camps and are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and renounce their faith.
Our nearest water neighbor, Sri Lanka states Buddhism as its official religion. Despite that, the country has remained volatile in terms of religion. Deliberate attack on churches, along with anti-Muslim violence has been on the rise, leading to Sri Lanka declaring emergency in 2018. The Tamil Hindus have faced persecution in Sri Lanka for years, many refugees currently stay in India and yet have been neglected in the bill.
In Myanmar, the Rohingya community who mainly practice Islam, have fled the country due to atrocities committed against them. However, they too do not find any place in the CAB.
Meanwhile, in Nepal, the spread of Christianity has resulted in Muslims remaining a poor and marginalized group in the country, often neglected in the country politics.
In Bhutan, a Buddhist majority nation, authorities have removed citizenship and have forced Buddhism codes on the Hindu and Christian minorities through physical violence, and have evicted people of Nepali ethnic groups. This is a definite ‘persecution on the grounds of religion’, and yet, Bhutan is strangely not included in the bill.
Further, the logic of Muslims not facing religious persecution in the Muslim majority states is false, since the Ahmadi Muslim sect and Shia Muslims face discrimination in Pakistan. The government states that Muslims may seek refuge in Islamic nations, but has remained silent on the others. Moreover, the bill fails to take atheists into consideration, who are also facing persecution for their lack of faith, particularly in Bangladesh.
Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, in the Parliament claimed that this bill would not have been necessary had Congress not accepted Partition based on religion. Barring aside that India itself was created as a secular state where all citizens irrespective of religion enjoy full membership, this argument does not hold true in the case of Afghanistan, which was not a part of India before Partition.
The opposition has also argued that the bill seeks to establish Muslims as second-class citizens by providing preferential treatment to other groups. This is a violation of Article 14 of the constitution, the Right to Equality, which does not allow segregation based on religion. However, the government maintains that it does not discriminate and that current Muslim citizens of the country have nothing to fear.
A part of why Muslims of India fear their citizenship status is due to the government murmurs of conducting the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on a nationwide scale. The NRC was an exercise conducted from 2015 to 2019 in Assam to identify illegal migrants, which resulted in a large portion of Hindus to be excluded from the list. The CAB, has been proposed as the solution for this (how exactly, it is not clear). Thus now fear lies among Muslims that only they stand to lose their citizenship in a nationwide NRC.
The conflict between the NRC and the CAB is not the only factor causing widespread protests in the North Eastern states. There is fear of the threat that an influx of minorities into the states will cause to the cultural and linguistic identity of the locals. Additionally, citizens of Assam note the bill violates the Assam Accords of 1985, which had fixed 24 March 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal migrants, regardless of religion.
In answer to the protests, the bill now has excluded many areas of the North East which fall under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system, along with areas under the the Sixth Schedule. The ILP system prevents other Indian nationals from settling in the states applicable and the Sixth Schedule sets up autonomous councils that enjoy certain powers. While a large amount of the seven sisters have been thus removed, a considerable chunk of Assam still remains, causing massive outrage.
The government has mostly remained silent on addressing these issues, along with logistical problems. We do not know how many people will be added to India’s population due to the bill. However, data records furnished by the Intelligence Bureau to the Joint Parliamentary Committee states that there are 31,313 people from the minority communities under consideration living under long term visa. Is the country prepared for the influx of people to come, and will it be able to handle the pressure on the resources that it will cause? Citizenship aside, what about housing, food, and employment of these migrants?
Currently, several groups of people have opposed the bill, and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has moved to the Supreme Court challenging the bill, and other groups may do the same. It is hoped that the Supreme Court will see all sides, and take a decision upholding the integrity of the constitution.
Resources:
- Document : Citizenship Act, 1955
- Document : The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019
- U.S Federal Commission calls for sanctions against CAB
- Crackdown on Uighur Muslims by Chinese government
- Attack on Sri Lankan churches; Declaration of emergency in Sri Lanka after mob attacks on Muslims
- Gambia files Rohingya genocide case against Myanmar at UN court
- As Nepal Strives to become more inclusive, are Muslims being left behind?
- Ethnic cleansing in Bhutan
- Document : Report on religious minorities in Pakistan
- Atheists are being hacked left and right in Bangladesh, and soon there will be none left
- “Partition on the basis of religion”, says Amit Shah
- Defense for excluding Muslims from CAB
- Ministry of Home Affairs extends ILP to Manipur
- IUML moves to Supreme Court against Bill
