CAA rollout

WEEKS after the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the rollout of the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand, the BJP has ticked another important box in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls by announcing the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Over four years after the law was passed, the Centre has notified the rules to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014, fleeing persecution on religious grounds.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has asserted that the CAA will not take away anyone’s citizenship, even as the Opposition and some religious groups are apprehensive that the enforcement of the law will intensify communal polarisation. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared that she would fiercely oppose the CAA if it turns out to be discriminatory against people living in India or curtails their existing citizenship rights. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has approached the Supreme Court, seeking a stay on the implementation of the rules that are ‘manifestly arbitrary and create an unfair advantage in favour of a class of persons on the grounds of religious identity’.

The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill by Parliament in December 2019 and the subsequent presidential assent had triggered protests in parts of the country. The law has been under fire for excluding Muslims from its ambit despite the fact that Muslim minority communities have faced persecution in India’s neighbourhood. There are also fears that Muslim refugees will be singled out as ‘illegal migrants’ in India. The onus is on the Centre to convince various stakeholders, primarily in states such as West Bengal and Assam which share their borders with Bangladesh, that the law is not politically or electorally motivated but is aimed at weeding out infiltrators and streamlining the grant of citizenship.