CAA
A law was passed in 2019 to expedite the citizenship process for non-Muslims who came to India prior to December 31, 2014, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Over four years after Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to expedite the citizenship process for non-Muslims who entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, the Union home ministry notified the rules for the law on Monday, sparking protests.
Guidelines
According to officials, all eligible individuals would be able to apply online for Indian citizenship under the law. The guidelines were developed months after Union Home Minister Amit Shah pledged that they would be completed in time for this summer’s scheduled 2024 national elections.
On December 11, 2019, Parliament passed the CAA, and a day later, the law went into effect. Parliamentary procedures stipulate that regulations for any law must be made within six months following the president’s assent; otherwise, the Committees on Subordinate law in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must grant an extension. Since 2020, the committees tasked with establishing the regulations governing the submission of petitions for Indian citizenship by qualified individuals have granted regular extensions to the Union Home Ministry. One of the main election platforms of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last Lok Sabha and the West Bengal assembly polls in 2021 was the vow to implement the CAA.
Matuas of Bengal
The Matuas of Bengal renewed their demand for the adoption of the Citizenship Act, 1955, when the Union government moved in October 2022 to give collectors in two districts of Gujarat the authority to provide citizenship certificates to non-Muslims from neighbouring nations under the Citizenship Act, 1955. Bengali BJP leaders asserted that this was the first move toward putting CAA into effect.
The Matuas are a group of Dalit Namasudra people who left East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1947 and during the conflict between India and Pakistan in 1971. They make up a sizable portion of the electorate in the Bangladeshi bordering districts of north and south Bengal. The CAA is opposed by West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, which claims it is unconstitutional. Protests sprang out when the CAA was passed, with those opposed to the law claiming it was discriminatory and illegal because it excluded Muslims and connected religious belief to citizenship in a secular nation.
By Kevin Varchand