Opposition question timing of Centre's announcement to notify CAA

Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for grant of Indian citizenship

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday announced that it would be notifying, the Rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019).

These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for grant of Indian citizenship. The Home Ministry said that the applications for such persons would be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided.

The CAA rules, aims to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants - including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians - who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

Earlier on February 10, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had reiterated that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which was passed by the Parliament in December 2019, would be notified and implemented before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"CAA is an Act of the country, it will be definitely be notified. It will be notified before the polls. CAA will be implemented by the polls, and there should be no confusion around it. CAA was a promise of the Congress government. When the country was divided and the minorities were persecuted in those countries, Congress had assured the refugees that they were welcome in India and they will be provided with Indian citizenship. Now they are backtracking," Shah had said.

The Home Minister had said in categorical terms that CAA was brought in to provide citizenship and not to take away anyone's citizenship.

"Minorities in our country, and specially our Muslim community, are being provoked. CAA cannot snatch away anyone's citizenship because there is no provision in the Act. CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan."

However, the notification of the Rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has met with criticism from the INDIA bloc allies with the Congress and the Trinamool opposing it.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh questioned the timing of the announcement just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

"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 posted on X.

"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" Ramesh further said in his post.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that this move is just publicity by the BJP for the elections.

"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" Mamata Banerjee said.

On December 27, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had asserted that the implementation of the CAA cannot be halted as it stands as the law of the land. He had also accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading the public regarding this matter.

The assurance of implementing the highly debated CAA was a significant electoral agenda for the BJP during the previous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in West Bengal.

During the past two years, over 30 district magistrates and home secretaries across nine states have been authorized with the ability to confer Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians arriving from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955.

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs' annual report for 2021-22, between April 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, a cumulative count of 1,414 individuals from non-Muslim minority communities originating from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan were granted Indian citizenship through registration or naturalization under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Under the Citizenship Act of 1955, Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization is granted to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan in nine states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra. 

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