LS passes Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Shah Says illegal immigrants would not be allowed to stay in country

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New Delhi  : The Lok Sabha (LS) passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill  on December 9, 2019, late night. The Bill seeks to grant Indian Citizenship to persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian communities who have migrated to India after facing persecution on grounds of religion in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, if they fulfil conditions for grant of citizenship.

Introducing the Bill, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that no where does this bill target India’s minority community, but illegal immigrants would not be allowed to stay in the country at any cost.
Replying to the debate, Shah said that misconceptions are being spread about the bill that it is against any particular community, but this is a humanitarian step to grant citizenship to those who suffered for the last 70 years. He said that failure of the Nehru-Liaqat pact of 1950 is also one of the reasons of bringing this Bill. He further said that it was Congress Party which accepted the partition of India on religious ground and therefore the need for the Bill was necessitated. The Home Minister also asked the members to distinguish between the genuine refuges and the intruders.

Shah said that the provisions of the amendments to the Act would not apply to tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under ‘The Inner Line’ notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. The Bill also seeks to amend the Third Schedule to the Act to make applicants belonging to the said communities from the aforesaid countries eligible for citizenship by naturalisation if they can establish their residency in India for five years instead of the existing eleven years.

Making an important announcement, Shah said that Manipur would be brought under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime and with that the problems of all the North Eastern States would be taken care of.

Shah while replying to the debate on the Bill, said that there is no political agenda behind this Bill but it is only a Constitutional process to give citizenship to those denied basic civil rights for the last 70 years. He cited the provisions from Constitutions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh where they provide for a specific state religion Shah stated that these countries have had a history of persecution of religious minorities viz., Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.

Shah said that a person who makes an application for citizenship would not be disqualified for making the application on the ground that a proceeding is pending against him/her and the application would not be rejected on that ground, if he is otherwise found qualified for grant of citizenship.

The Home Minister also reassured that no provision of Article 371 would be violated by this Bill. The linguistic, cultural and social identity of the people of the North East would be preserved and this Bill contains the solution to the problems of the people of these States.

Talking about Right to Equality, Shah said that Article 14 allows reasonable qualifications to its provisions and there have been instances in the past when refugees facing persecution in other countries have been granted Indian citizenship. Giving example of refugees coming from Bangladesh in 1971, he said that the Government of that time gave citizenship to these refugees.  Refugees from Uganda were also given citizenship and same steps were taken during Sri Lankan crisis and after the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985. These decisions were based on reasonable qualifications to Article 14, he added.

Shah informed that the Bill seeks to amend section 7D so as to empower the Central Government to cancel registration as Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder, after providing a reasonable opportunity of being heard, in case of violation of any provisions of the Citizenship Act or any other law for the time being in force. “I want to assure the Nation that this bill is not against any provision of the Constitution of India,” he said, according to a PIB release.