4 Years After Bill Passed, CAA Likely To Become Reality Today: Sources
New Delhi:
The Union Home Ministry could issue a notification later tonight to implement the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, sources told NDTV Monday afternoon.
The CAA – which makes religion, for the first time, a test of citizenship – was cleared by Parliament in December 2019 amid violent protests across the country, and fierce resistance from opposition politicians and the chief ministers of non-BJP states.
Over 100 people were killed – either during protests or due to police action.
Once issued, the government can grant Indian nationality to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who had come to India before 2015. An unnamed official told news agency ANI “the regulations are prepared and an online portal is already set up… applicants can disclose year of entry without travel documents”.
No additional documents will be required, the official said.
This comes less than a month after Home Minister Amit Shah stressed the CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha election, which is due in April/May. “CAA is an act of the country… it will definitely be notified. CAA will come into effect before the election (and) nobody should be confused about this,” Mr Shah said at an event in Delhi.
Mr Shah last month sought to play down fears the CAA, and the equally contentious NRC, or National Register of Citizens, will be combined to target minority communities.
“Our Muslim brothers are being misled and instigated (against the CAA), which is only meant to give citizenship to those who came to India after facing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is not for snatching anyone’s citizenship.”
Assurances the CAA will be implemented has been a key election promise of the BJP, both in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and in campaigns for various state polls, with a focus on Bengal, where the saffron party and the ruling Trinamool are fierce rivals.
In December, at a rally in Bengal, Mr Shah had lashed out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee again, accusing her of misleading the public in this matter.
And now, as the CAA nears notification (and implementation), opposition politicians, including Ms Banerjee, have spoken out again, insisting it will not be enforced in their respective territories. The Bengal Chief Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP – bidding for a third term at the centre – had only raised the issue now for votes.
“With elections approaching, the BJP has again raked up the CAA issue to reap political benefits. But let me make it very clear, as long as I am alive, I will not allow its implementation in Bengal,” she said at a public event in Uttar Dinjapur district.
Ms Banerjee’s Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin, was similarly emphatic.
Accusing the BJP-led government’s actions of going “against communal harmony”, the DMK boss vowed that his administration would never implement the law.
Several other non-BJP ruled states, such as Kerala and Punjab, also opposed the CAA, with many passing resolutions; Bengal and Kerala also stopped all NPR and NRC work.
