Four Years After Bill Was Passed, Citizenship Law Notified

On 11 Mar evening, the Indian government notified the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which now will be implemented. The CAA makes religion a test of Indian citizenship. It allows religiously persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, and Parsi refugees from India’s neighboring countries who arrived in India before 31 Dec 2014 to receive Indian citizenship. The law does not include Muslims in its ambit. The timing of the notification, on the eve of the Islamic holy month Ramadan, just before the 2024 general elections, sends a message to the BJP government’s core constituency that the government is keen on advancing its Hindutva agenda. It is also a distraction from the Supreme Court orders to the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose the names of donors and beneficiaries of the electoral bonds (Story 9). When the Bill became an Act in Dec 2019, it sparked fears that the law could be used to target Muslims and resulted in nationwide protests. A spokesperson for the Home Ministry said those eligible could submit applications in ‘a completely online mode.’ While the law remains biased, one of the reasons for widespread protests was that citizens saw the law being weaponized in tandem with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) or the Census. The NRC exercise was already underway in Assam and hundreds of thousands Muslim voters had been disenfranchised. The SGPC has welcomed the law saying it would be beneficial to Sikhs coming in from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The irony is many Sikhs arrived after 2014. The SGPC must be questioned on the issue (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 1, Story 10).