The Citizenship Amendment Act CAA is a totally unconstitutional amendment. This amendment changes the 2003 04 restraint regarding citizenship rights for illegal migrants. In 2019 CAA lucidly violate the secular nature of the constitution and also oppose the fundamental rights Article 14. CAA compromise only with the six named religious groups or there are no social reason why only illegal migrants picked up from these three countries Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and why protection given only to these three countries illegal migrants. As the bill turned into Act 12 Dec 2019. The Muslim community protest the act and termed it totally communal based act. So, India must drop the idea of CAA and NRC that have been enacted with bitterness against India largest minority i.e. Muslims. History has witnessed that whoever avoid minorities rights, human rights to equality and liberty of its citizenship had paid very heavy price in the past. So, if you support the citizenship amendment bill, then you are basically supporting the Two nation theory, which defines Hindu and Muslims cannot live together and they need to be given separate state. In past every Indian freedom fighter supports Hindu Muslim unity and gave us a message of peaceful co existence. Shally Rani "Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 In India: The Conflict Between Humanity & Cultural Identity" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-4 , June 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30853.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/political-science/30853/citizenship-amendment-act-caa-2019-in-india-the-conflict-between-humanity-and-cultural-identity/shally-rani
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@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD30853 | Volume – 4 | Issue – 4 | May-June 2020 Page 63
2. Niraja Gopal Jayal (2013)2: The writer has done
excellent work on history of the formation and
transformation of citizenship inIndia fromLateColonial
period to the present, specifically the author sensibly
analyzes the emerging conceptions of citizenship as
legal status, as right and as identity. This book also
highlightsthesubstancechallengesfacingcontemporary
India, including citizenship and some more important
issues.
3. Shrutikar Abhijit Sarmah (2018)3: This book deals with
the series of events that started from AssamAgitationto
current NRC that all started in the year 1978. It also
describes about the unnatural increase inthenumberof
voters was disclosed by authorities while preparing
voters list or explaining the Assam accord 15-Aug-1985
which was known as Assam Agitation.
4. V.N Shukla (2008)4: This book provides an important
information about the Indian constitution including
latest constitution amendment and supreme court
important decisions on the issues such as equality,
Right, discrimination. The author explains the article14
deeply and its relation with CAA.
5. Mamta Baneerjee(2019)5:Thisbook coverstheCAAand
role of the people against CAA, NPR and NRC. She said
CAA risk India’s Independence and launch an andolan
against CAA and NRC very first time. She highlights the
discriminationdonebythegovt,CAAisunconstitutional,
illegal and wrong. She also highlightstheroleofthechief
minister of Tripura, Assam and told them to come
forward and oppose CAA, NPR and NRC.
Citizenship Amendment Act:
The CAB 2019 was passed by the parliament of India on 11-
Dec-2019. It amended the citizenship act of 1955 in order to
award Indian citizenship to Non-Muslim emigrant from
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan (All Muslim majority
nation). Under CAA 2019 amendment migrants whoentered
India by December 31, 2014 and had endure “Religious
persecution” in their country of origin, were made qualified
for citizenship by current law. The migrants will be granted
quicken Indian citizenship in six year. The amendment also
flexible the resident qualification for naturalization of these
migrants from eleven years to six years.
What the Bill purposes for?:
According to the Bill, members of Hindu, Christian, Sikh,
Buddhist, Parsis, Jain communities who have from Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Bangladesh till December 31, 2014 and facing
religious persecution they will not be treated as illegal
immigrants but given Indian citizenship. It also relaxes the
provision for “Citizenship by naturalization”.
2 Niraja Gopal Jayal; Citizenship and its discontents, Harvard
University Press, New Delhi, 2013.
3 Shrutikar Abhijit Sarmah; National Register of Citizen-NRC
in Assam (Addressing Bangladesh migrant issue, solving
demographic aggression), Oxford University Press, New
Delhi, 2018.
4 V.N Shukla; Constitution of India, Eastern Book Co., Delhi,
2008
5 Mamta Baneerjee; Nagrik, Dey’s Publisher, West Bengal,
2020
What does bill cover
One more important thing is that the bill only covers six
minorities namely Hindu, Sikh, Parses, Buddhists Jain and
Christian from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan.
According to the citizenship act of 1955, illegal immigrant
cannot get citizenship in India. An illegal migrant is
described as people who either enrolledthecountry without
proper documents, stayed on beyond the allowable time. In
2015 the govt. done modification about the passport and
foreign acts to avowed Non-Muslim refugees from these
countries to stay back India even if they entered the country
without valid papers. The main loopback of the bill, Muslim
community exclude from CAB.
Issues Surrounding the bill
The integral criticism of the act has been that it
specifically targets Muslims. Thus, the religious base of
citizenship not only violates the principlesofsecularism
but also liberalism, equality and justice.
Main opposition parties say the law is discriminatoryas
it singles out Muslims who constitute nearly 15 percent
of country’s population.
It contravention the 1985 Assam Accord, which was
signed to end illegal migration irrespective of religion.
Under this Accord, any person who came in to Assam
after 24 march 1971(just before Bangladeshi war)
would be treated as foreigner.
The bill also disrupts the final draft of the NRC that
eliminate nearly 40 lakh people. Because the bill would
grant citizenship to all Hindus who came to Assam from
Bangladesh even after the NRC cutoff date of March,
1971.So the bill considered to be threat of the cultural
and lingual identity of the people of Assam and other
North East states in India.
Furthermore, the bill violates the basic tents of the
constitution:
It disobeys the fundamental right to equality under
Article 14.
It also offends the provision of secularism in
fundamental right, directiveprinciplesandfundamental
duties of the constitution.
India has many other refugees that include Tamils and
Srilanka and Rohingya from Myanmar. They are not
mentioned under the Act.
It will be challenging for the government to extricate
between illegal migrants and those persecuted.
Modi defend CAB:
Before India’s general election in Mid-2019. The BJP
liberated its election manifesto which repeat the party
commitment to enact a law to grant citizenship to religious
minorities within a few months, BJP governmentintroduced
the CAA in parliament and explain the objectives of the bill
and reasons for execute the bill.
PM Modi in favor of CAB says the constitution of Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Afghanistan specify a state religion of Islam,
individual from otherreligiouscommunityinthesecountries
face religious persecution that has caused many to depart to
India. So, the BJP government presented the bill as measure
that allow these migrants to live and work in India. The
Home Minister Amit Shah said in the favor of CAB “The
Government is not taking away anyone’s right but rather is
3. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD30853 | Volume – 4 | Issue – 4 | May-June 2020 Page 64
granting right to people in need”. There is nothing
disagreeable about the new law, the government is
attempting to protect minorities from other countries and
the six communities. They faceddiscriminationandreligious
persecution and they have no place to go expect India.
Home minister also cited the Nehru-Liaquat pact as per
him, the pact failed to achieve its objective in protecting
minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The CAB will give new light into the lives of the
countries people who are facing religiouspersecutionin
neighboring countries.
Opposers of CAA: The names of the opposers of CAA are
mentioned below:
1. Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi
2. Party leader Rahul Gandhi
3. Motilal Vohra, Ahmed Patel, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary
4. Trinamool Congress (M.P) Mahua Moitra
5. AIMIM (All India Majlsis-e-Ittehad-ul-muslimeen)leader
Asaduddin Owaisi
6. AASU (All Assam Student Union)
7. CPI (Communist party of India)
Instead of the above mentioned so many NGO’s, student
union, Political Parties are against the CAA and several
petitions have been filed against CAA in Supreme court.
Muslim community and Shaheen Bagh:
The Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh has become the hub of
nation-wide protests against the citizenship Amendment
Act- NPR, NCR. It started as a quite demonstration against
the Delhi police bashing Jamia Millia Islamia university
student on 13, December, 2019. However, the harsh
repression in Jamia that took place on the evening of 15,
December, 2019 turned the Shaheen Bagh protest into
something else. Hundreds of Muslim sit on road and started
protesting.
Nearly hundred days the protest against the CAA took place.
The Modi government stood firm saying the CAA billwill not
be taken back. PM Modi clarify that the CAA bill does not
affect Indian Muslim. But in the month of March-2020
COVID-19 spread all over the world resulting in Lockdown
situation. So as a result the anti CAA protestorremovedfrom
Shaheen Bagh.
What could be the real reason behind bringing this bill:
1. BJP trying to create a vote bank: By providing
citizenship to illegal immigrants BJP is trying to create a
vote bank
2. Communalizing the people: Divide the Hindu and
Muslim. By using same policy of Britishers (Divide and
rule) BJP wants to rule over India for many years. If the
people are against one another then one can easily rule
over them.
3. Mislead people from real issues: The target of BJP is
to distract the people from the real important issues in
the country such as Economy, GDP, Growth rate,
unemployment, illiteracy, Healthcare system, Women
safety. So our governments take strict steps to solve the
problems it can be solved only by mass awareness,
humanity and positive attitude.
Conclusion:
The CAA is a completely unconstitutional amendment and
should be discard. The NPR and NRC apart from being a
colossal waste of money, will also lead to a remarkable
nation-wide tragedy. Furthermore, this bill is a huge threat
to our national security our intelligence agency. Row had
expressed the same anxious since illegal immigration would
become easier due to this bill. Anyone could just request for
citizenship by generating an affidavit declaring heisa Hindu
and he would be admitted citizenship very easily. So, if you
want your country to scale heights then we need to remain
secular.
REFERENCES:
[1] Tallur, Ram Raja; Citizenship Amendment Act 2019
where we stand?, Temple tree Publishers, Bengaluru,
2019.
[2] Jayal, Niraja Gopal; Citizenship and its discontents,
Harvard University Press, New Delhi, 2013.
[3] Sarmah, Shrutikar Abhijit; National RegisterofCitizen-
NRC in Assam (Addressing Bangladesh migrant issue,
solving demographic aggression), Oxford University
Press, New Delhi, 2018.
[4] Shukla, V. N; Constitution of India, Eastern Book Co.,
Delhi, 2008
[5] Bannerjee, Mamta; Nagrik, Dey’s Publisher, West
Bengal, 2020
[6] https://economictimes.com
[7] www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-
analysis/citizenship-amendment-bill-2019
[8] Economic Political weekly January 25,2020VolumeLV
No.4
[9] Economic Political weekly February 15,2020 Volume
LV No.7
