The Parliament of India passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, of 1955 by providing an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who arrived in India on or before 31 December 2014. The CAA removes barriers to acquiring Indian citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from the neighboring countries.
India’s Home Minister on CAA
On Thursday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted that the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) would never be taken back and rejected the opposition’s charge that “CAA is unconstitutional. He further dismissed any provision for detention camps in the Act.
In an interview with ANI, Shah said, “This is our sovereign right to ensure Indian citizenship in our country, we will never compromise on it and CAA will never be taken back. Dismissing the claim that CAA is unconstitutional, he said ‘they always talk about Article 14. they forget there are two clauses in the Article. the law does not violate Article 14 There is a clear reasonable clarification
United States Commission on India’s CAA
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom writes, “In December 2019, the Indian Parliament passed into law the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). This law provides a fast track to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Quickly after the CAA’s passage, large-scale protests broke out across India with the government instituting a violent crackdown against the protestors. In conjunction with a proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens, there are fears that this law is part of an effort to create a religious test for Indian citizenship and could lead to the widespread disenfranchisement of Indian Muslims. This factsheet provides an overview of the CAA and explains why it represents a significant downward turn in religious freedom in India.:
