Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA)2019 India is the bill that allows persecuted minorities of the neighborhood countries of India which is Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh to give special time limits and facilities for taking citizenship of Bharat(India).
Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 bill was passed with a majority in Loksabha and Rajyasabha on 12 December 2019. It is the bill that gives hope to persecuted minorities of neighborhood countries of Bharat (India) to become legal citizens of India, as per the citizenship act,1955. From so many years it had been heard and seen many brutal stories of Indian neighborhood countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh) which they did with their minorities i.e. Hindu, Sikh, Budh, Parsi, and Jain. India is the country that welcomes each ideology people with their open hands and allows them to stay in India.
With this kind of gesture, the Indian government takes a strong stand for those persecuted Minorities who are living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Indian government gives special relief to the neighborhood countries, persecuted Minorites by stating them that “Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December 2014.” It also states that “‘Provided that for the person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, the aggregate period of residence or service of Government in India as required under this clause shall be read as “not less than five years” in place of “not less than eleven years”
For taking citizenship of India there are following methods which are as follows :
1.Citizenship By Birth
2.Citizenship By Descent
3.Citizenship By registration
4.Citizenship By Naturalisation
Now, why Bharat (India) need to amend their citizenship law. As per the minority rights international, the minority in Afghanistan in 2016 is 900 which is significantly dropped due to immigration. Why this immigration is held the report says “due to regular attacks on minority homes, women’s have been raped and molested, forceful conversion led this migration. In the 1970s 70,000 Hindus and Sikhs were there, In the 1980s there was a sharp decline of 2000 – 3000 Hindu and Sikh population when Mujahidin came in power. Currently, the population of Hindu And Sikhs is 1350. The situation of the very next neighborhood i.e. Pakistan is awful. Soon after the independence, the population of minorities in Pakistan was 23% of the majority population but today it is 3-4% of the total population.Here the situation is the same as in Afghanistan where people need to flee from their homes to protect their families from Islamic Radicalization. Girls and women have been abducted from their homes and get forcefully converted. Nobody, even the lawmakers are helpless to control these outbreaks of violence.
Next, neighborhoods have a strong connection to India not only for culture sharing but also in terms of history. Bangladesh (East Pakistan) has the same situation as Pakistan where minority populations have a slow and significant decline after 1940 which is 28% to 8.96% in 2011. Several bloody riots go on, Noakhali the 1974 Bangladesh war shows the serious, horrible, and heinous crime on minorities especially on Hindus. “Professor Abul Barakat of Dhaka University in his recently published book, The Political Economy of Reforming Agriculture: Land Water Bodies in Bangladesh, writes that “there will be no Hindus left within Bangladesh within 30 years…The rate of the exodus over the past 49 years points to that direction.” As per his research, around 11.3 million Hindus were compelled to flee Bangladesh due to religious persecution from 1964 to 2013”. Now the question arises where these persecutes minorities go.
This historic and fruitful decision by the government of India gives a ray of hope to those persecuted minorities of neighborhood countries i.e. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who lost their beloved in this Islamic radicalization. But, there has been a high dissatisfaction in Indian Muslims that why they don’t include the neighborhood Muslims. There have been rumors in Indian Muslims that their citizenship will be canceled. From Prime Minister to Home minister everyone gives their statement that Indian muslims don’t need to be afraid of this bill. Indian Muslims have nothing to do with this bill. But it seems like they have been brainwashed or there may be illegal immigrants in the face of Indian nationality who did the horrible and heinous riots. If we look into in-depth detail there has been a connection that these riots have excessively taken in those areas most where former Home union minster indicates about illegal immigration.
Citizenship Amendment Act is the only way to protect persecuted minorities. Their nightmares should be turned into good dreams of the future. The illegal activities against them which are done in neighborhood countries can’t be changed. But their future should be bright. We cannot give their loved ones back into their life. But of course, we can protect their present and future goals from this persecution that they had suffered for decades in neighborhood countries.
Sources :
1.https://minorityrights.org/country/afghanistan/
2.https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/1/1/the-decline-of-afghanistans-hindu-and-sikh-communities
3.https://www.livemint.com/Politics/F4r3Tmf51k8Sm6DGjPRaEN/Slow-genocide-of-minorities-in-Pakistan-Farahnaz-Ispahani.html
4.https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/may-no-hindus-left-bangladesh-30-years
5. Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019
6.https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2019/214646.pdf
