NEW DELHI: India’s federal government on Monday issued a notification for implementation of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a rare third term for his Hindu nationalist government.
The CAA — which makes religion, for the first time, a test of Indian citizenship — was cleared by Parliament in December 2019 amid violent protests, in which more than 100 people died, and fierce resistance from opposition politicians and opposition-ruled states, NDTV reported.
The Citizenship Amendment Act grants Indian nationality to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before December 31, 2014.
Modi’s government had not crafted implementation rules for the law, after protests and sectarian violence broke out in New Delhi and elsewhere within weeks of the law’s December 2019 enactment. Scores were killed and hundreds injured during days of clashes.
“The Modi government announces implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act,” a government spokesperson said in a text message.
“It was an integral part of BJP’s 2019 manifesto.
This will pave (the) way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India,” he said, referring to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 2019 election manifesto.
Muslim groups say the law, combined with a proposed national register of citizens, can discriminate against India’s 200 million Muslims - the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
They fear the government might remove the citizenship of Muslims without documents in some border states.
The government denies accusations that it is anti-Muslim and has defended the law, saying it is needed to help minorities facing persecution in Muslim-majority nations.
It says the law is meant to grant citizenship, not take it away from anyone, and has called the earlier protests politically motivated.
Modi swept to power in 2014 and has consolidated his hold since with a focus on growth, welfare economics, boosting infrastructure and aggressive Hindu nationalism.
Opinion polls suggest he will comfortably win a majority in a general election that must be held by May.
Timing
The Congress on Monday took a jibe at the Modi government over the timing of its decision to notify CAA rules, saying the notification move near the date of announcement of Lok Sabha election dates is “evidently designed to polarise the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam”.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said in a post of X that the Modi government has taken over four years to notify the rules.
In her reaction to the government’s announcement, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it is BJP’s “publicity for elections” and if the rules “deprive” people of their rights, she will fight against them.
“Let me see the rules first. The notification has not been issued yet. If people are deprived of their rights under the rules, then we will fight against it. This is BJP’s publicity for elections, it is nothing else,” the Trinamool Congress chief said at a press conference in Kolkata.
Jairam Ramesh said the government took nine extensions for the notification of the rules and the timing of the government move also appears to be an attempt to manage the headlines after the Supreme Court verdict in the electoral bonds case.
“It has taken four years and three months for the Modi Government to notify the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed by the Parliament in December 2019.
The Prime Minister claims that his Government works in a business-like and time-bound manner. The time taken to notify the rules for the CAA is yet another demonstration of the Prime Minister’s blatant lies,” Jairam Ramesh said.
“After seeking nine extensions for the notification of the rules, the timing right before the elections is evidently designed to polarise 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,” he added.
