News Analysis India

Tag: Citizenship Amendment Act

  • MHA seeks more time to frame rules under Citizenship Amendment Act

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry has approached the parliamentary committees seeking more time for framing rules under the CAA through which the Modi government wants to grant Indian nationality to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

    The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019 and the Presidential nod was received the next day.

    Subsequently, it was notified by the home ministry.

    However, the law is yet to be implemented as rules under the CAA are yet to be framed.

    According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

    Since, the home ministry could not frame rules within six months of the enactment of the CAA, it sought time for the committees — first in June 2020 and then four more times.

    The fifth extension came to an end on Monday.

    “We have approached the parliamentary committees seeking more time. Hopefully, we will get the extension,” a home ministry official told PTI.

    The Central government has already made it clear that the Indian citizenship to the eligible beneficiaries of the CAA will be given only after rules under the legislation are notified.

    The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

    Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants and given Indian citizenship.

    After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in different parts of the country leading to deaths of nearly 100 people in police firing and related violence.

  • Afghan crisis exhibits importance of CAA in India: BJP leader Ramchander Rao

    By ANI

    HYDERABAD:: The Afghanistan crisis has exhibited the importance of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the country, said Bharatiya Janata Party leader N Ramchander Rao on Monday.

    Speaking to ANI, Rao said that the religious persecution of Hindus and Sikhs in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan has forced them to leave their homes. “They have to leave their homes. Where will they go if not India? Looking at the situation in Afghanistan, we can see how important CAA is for our country,” he stated.

    “People of India will now realise that this step taken by the government will help all these Hindus and Sikhs who are being thrown away from Afghanistan,” he added. He further stated that the government will ensure to evacuate all Indians stranded in Afghanistan.

    ALSO READ| Developments in volatile neighbourhood are the reason why CAA is necessary: Hardeep Singh Puri

    Rao’s statement on CAA came in the wake of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s tweet earlier on Sunday.

    Sharing a news article, Singh had tweeted, “Recent developments in our volatile neighbourhood and the way Sikhs and Hindus are going through a harrowing time are precisely why it was necessary to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act.”

    With the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, countries are rushing to evacuate their citizens from the war-torn nation. The CAA allows persecuted minorities belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to avail of Indian citizenship.

    According to the provisions of the act, people belonging to these communities who arrived in India till December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in these three countries will not be treated as illegal migrants but will be provided with Indian citizenship.

    The Opposition parties and several groups have protested against the implementation of the CAA and said that the law coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise targets the minorities in India.

  • Developments in volatile neighbourhood are the reason why CAA is necessary: Hardeep Singh Puri

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI:: After a special Indian Air Force (IAF) repatriation flight ferrying 168 people from Kabul landed at Ghaziabad Hindon air base on Sunday, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that developments in the volatile neighbourhood are the reason why enactment of Citizenship Amendment Act is necessary.

    Sharing a news article, Singh tweeted, “Recent developments in our volatile neighbourhood and the way Sikhs and Hindus are going through a harrowing time are precisely why it was necessary to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act.”

    People in Afghanistan have been rushing to leave the country after the Taliban seized control last week. On August 15, the country’s government fell soon after President Ashraf Ghani left the country. Countries have been urgently evacuating their citizens from the war-torn nation. The Kabul airport is witnessing nowadays a heavy chaos due to instability in the region.

    The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said the government is committed to the safe return of all Indian nationals from Afghanistan. The MEA said that the main challenge for travel to and from Afghanistan is the operational status of the Kabul airport.

    MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, tweeted earlier to say that two Nepalese citizens were among those on board the Air India flight from Kabul. The CAA allows persecuted minorities belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to avail of Indian citizenship.

    According to the provisions of the act, people belonging to these communities who arrived in India till December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in these three countries will not be treated as illegal migrants but will be provided with Indian citizenship.

    If a person belongs to the aforementioned faiths, from these three countries, does not have proof of birth of parents, they can apply for Indian citizenship after six years of residence in India. President of India Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the legislation on December 12, 2019.

    The Opposition parties and several groups have protested against the implementation of CAA. CAA’s detractors believe that the law coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise is intended to target the minorities in India.

  • Citizenship under CAA only after issuance of rules; no more amendments proposed: Government

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Centre said on Wednesday that Indian citizenship to the eligible beneficiaries under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be given only after rules under the legislation are notified. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said there is no proposal under consideration of the government for any further amendment of the Citizenship Act.

    “Eligible persons covered by the Citizenship Amendment Act may submit applications for grant of citizenship after appropriate rules are notified by the central government,” he said in a written reply to a query in Rajya Sabha.

    He was asked whether the government has received new applications for citizenship after the CAA 2019 was enacted. The CAA was notified on December 12, 2019 and came into force with effect from January 10, 2020, the minister said.

    “The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been requested to grant further extension of time up to January 9, 2022 to frame the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019,” Rai said.

    The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The government got an extension for the fifth time for framing these rules.

    According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should be framed within six months of presidential assent or an extension of the time must be sought. Those from the mentioned communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

    After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in different parts of the country leading to the death of nearly 100 people in police firing and related violence.

  • Centre seeks extension till January 9 for framing CAA rules

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The central government has sought extension till January 9 for framing rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed by Parliament in 2019, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

    He was replying to a question from Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on whether the government had missed the deadline to frame and notify CAA rules and the steps taken in this context.

    “The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) has been notified on 12.12.2019 and has come into force w.e.f. 10.01.2020,” the minister said.

    “The Committees on Subordinate Legislation, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been requested to grant further extension of time upto 09.01.2022 to frame the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019,” Rai said.

    ALSO READ | AASU head says not afraid of being spied on by Pegasus, fight against CAA to continue 

    The CAA envisages to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

    This is the fifth extension sought by the government for framing of these rules.

    According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek extension.

    The objective of the CAA is to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

    Those from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

    After the CAA was passed by Parliament, widespread protests were witnessed in different parts of the country leading to deaths of nearly 100 people in police firing and related violence.

  • No Muslim will face any loss due to CAA, says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday said the Muslims in India would not face any loss due to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA.

    “CAA and NRC (National Register of Citizens) are not against Indian citizens. The Muslims in India are not going to suffer from any loss due to CAA,” Bhagwat said at a book release programme in Guwahati.

    According to the RSS chief, there are several methods for a country or a government to know its citizens and NRC was one of them.

    “This (NRC) is not against anybody. NRC was made a Hindu-Muslim issue but it is not. Such things happen (as some try) to gain political mileage,” Bhagwat said.

    He said it happened in every country that it tried to figure out its citizens. It is a matter of knowledge and information and it is the same in the case of people visiting another country, he said.

    “Every government in the world checks if the people, who arrived after obtaining a visa, are visiting the places they are supposed to. It also tries to find out who those people are who came without permission,” the RSS chief said.

    He said India would not have been partitioned if the views of the people were taken. He said the entire populace that fought to drive out the British had imagined the whole of “Bharat” to become one independent nation.

    “But there was division. The views of people were not taken for a consensus during partition. If their views were taken, there would never have been any partition. But the leaders decided and the public accepted it,” Bhagwat said.

    He added that due to that decision, some people lost their homes and hearth and it continued to this day.

  • No Muslim will face any loss due to the citizenship law, says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who is in Assam on a two-day visit, said on Wednesday that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) have nothing to do with Hindu-Muslim divide and communal narrative surrounding the two issues were being peddled by some to gain political mileage.

    He further emphasised that no Muslim will face any loss due to the citizenship law.

    “After independence, the first prime minister of the country had said that minorities will be taken care of, and that has been done so far. We will continue to do so. No Muslim will face any loss due to CAA,” Bhagwat said after launching a book here, titled ‘Citizenship debate over NRC and CAA-Assam and the Politics of History’.

    The citizenship law is will provide protection to persecuted minorities in the neighbouring countries, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief underlined.

    “We reach out to the majority communities, too, in these countries during a calamity… So if there are some who wish to come to our country due to threats and fear, we will definitely have to help them out,” Bhagwat said.

    Talking about NRC, he stated that all nations have the right to know who its citizens are.

    “The matter is in the political domain as the government is involved in it… A section of people wants to get political mileage by creative a communal narrative around these two issues,” he added.

  • BJP faces tough challenge from Opposition in Upper Assam

    By ANI
    DIBRUGARH: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a tough fight from the Opposition in the upper Assam region where 47 seats will go on polls in the first phase on March 27.

    BJP is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pull off a victory in upper Assam where he has held five rallies so far whereas Congress has promised to stop the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and increase wages of tea workers.

    Assam BJP president Ranjit Kumar Dass has exuded confidence that his party is going to sweep the elections polls in the state. He has said that the party will soon implement the BJP if it is re-elected to office. He further claimed that the CAA is not an issue in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state as people will vote logically, not emotionally.

    Around 260 candidates are in the fray out of which 101 are crorepati candidates and 41 candidates have declared criminal cases against them.

    Error-free NRC, CAA, wages to the tea garden workers, flood and soil erosion are the main issues in the election.

    Thirty per cent of the voters are connected to the tea garden which is considered as a big vote bank in the state.

    Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi has promised them if voted to power then daily wages of tea workers will be increased to Rs 365. In 2016, BJP promised them Rs 351 as daily wages. Currently, tea garden workers are getting Rs 167 per day, though in all the rallies PM Modi promised that after the elected government will take steps to increase wages of tea garden workers.

    BJP has promised voters a “infiltrators-free” Assam.

    47 seats– 42 seats from 11 districts of Upper Assam and northern Assam region and five seats from central Assam’s Nagaon district– going to polls in the first phase.

    In 2016, the BJP and its ally AGP had swept the elections in the region by winning 35 of these seats. The BJP alone had bagged 27 seats. Congress could manage to win only 9 seats despite securing nearly the same vote percentage.

    Till 2014 Lok Sabha, the Upper Assam area was dominated by Congress but the matrics changed after Himanta Biswa Sarma shifted his base to BJP from Congress.

    In this election, 37 sitting MLAs are re-contesting including 24 from the BJP, 6 each from Congress and AGP, and one from the AIUDF.

    Today the election campaign for the first phase will be over by 5 pm. BJP is facing a tough challenge in Assam this time. As there is a direct contest with the opposition coalition.

    In the second phase, 39 constituencies in 13 districts will go to the polls on April 1 while polling on 40 Assembly constituencies in 12 districts will be held on April 6. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

  • SC agrees to hear plea challenging competence of state assemblies to adopt resolution against central statutes like CAA

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday posted after four weeks for hearing a plea challenging the legislative competence of diverse State Assemblies in adopting ‘Resolutions’ against central statutes like CAA and farm laws which fall under the Union List of the Seventh Schedule.

    A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde asked advocate appearing for petitioner Samta Andolan Samiti (SAS) to do more research.

    “Do some research on the other aspects, we will see, we don’t want to create more problems,” the top court bench said.

    The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by SAS has raises a question of law as to whether within the Constitutional framework, more particularly Article 213(2)(a) and Article 246(1), any State Legislature can adopt ‘Resolution’ adversely criticising a central Statute which falls in List I of the Seventh Schedule.

    The plea impugning the legislative actions of four different State Legislative Assemblies of Rajasthan, Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal which according to the petitioner, have infringed Fundamental Rights of all Indian citizens.

    The State Legislatures of Rajasthan, Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal purportedly adopted resolutions condemning and adversely criticising the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 even after it was passed by both the Houses of the Parliament and received Presidential assent being duly notified in the Gazette of India, stated the petition.

    “The Legislative Assembly of West Bengal adopted a Resolution against three Central Legislations (farm laws). Rules of Procedure of the these Legislative Assemblies framed under Article 208 contain chapters titled ‘Resolutions’ and the same, apart from imposing a precondition upon the Speakers to decide the admissibility of the Resolution before allowing the same to be placed in the Assembly, also prohibit subjects which are not primarily the concern of the state government and on which litigations are pending,” the plea added.  

  • Assam polls: Congress pledges to build memorial for anti-CAA protesters killed in 2019

    By Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: The Congress on Tuesday announced that it would build a memorial for the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protestors who were killed last year.

    After winning the election, we shall make a memorial for the anti-CAA people’s movement that has been ongoing in Assam over the last few years. The memorial shall remember people’s struggle and sacrifices with protest songs and paintings,” Congress MP, Pradyut Bordoloi said.

    Five people lost their lives when the anti-CAA protests in the state had turned violent in December 2019.

    Assam Congress chief Ripun Bora also said a “grand memorial” would be built in Guwahati. “In the coming months, Guwahati will see a new landmark — a grand memorial of the anti-CAA movement to be built by the incoming Congress government. This will be the state’s message to BJP. No CAA in Assam,” Bora said.

    “The dark days of BJP’s oppression of Assamese people are about to get over. Congress is winning Assam and will make a memorial of the people’s struggle against CAA,” Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia said.

    Echoing a similar sentiment, Congress Manifesto Committee chairman and MP Gaurav Gogoi said the party would build the memorial to salute the supreme sacrifice of the anti-CAA protestors. Assam does not want CAA, he said.

    The statements come two days after party leader Rahul Gandhi had firmly stated that Congress would respect the Assam Accord and not implement CAA when sworn to power.

    “The reason why Congress has announced it will make a memorial for the anti-CAA struggle is to make sure the future generations remember how the people stood up to the autocratic rule of BJP and its imposition of an anti-Assamese law,” said party MP, Abdul Khaleque.