CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT

1. Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) 

• Citizen Amendment Act  (CAA) came into force on Dec 12, 2019, as a humanitarian gesture towards non–Muslim refugees compelled to flee from the three neighbouring countries due to religious persecution.
• The act states that any person belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before Deember31,2014 without proper documents(passport, visas) shall not be treated as an illegal migrant and granted citizenship on certain condition and restriction, provided he/she has been in India for not less than five years.
• The act does not immediately grant citizenship to the six religious communities but merely makes them eligible to apply for Indian citizenship by naturalization, provided they can establish their residency in India for five years instead of the existing eleven years
• The government stated that the amendment to the citizenship act was made because the said minorities were subjected to religious persecution and they had nowhere to go but to enter India illegally.

2. What did India and Pakistan agree upon?

• “The Governments of India and Pakistan solemnly agree that each shall ensure, to the minorities throughout its territory, complete equality of citizenship, irrespective of religion, a full sense of security in respect of life, culture, property and personal honour, freedom of movement within each country and freedom of occupation, speech and worship, subject to law and morality,” the text of the Pact begins.
• “Members of the minorities shall have equal opportunity with members of the majority community to participate in the public life of their country, to hold political or other office, and to serve in their country’s civil and armed forces. Both Governments declare these rights to be fundamental and undertake to enforce them effectively,
• “The Prime Minister of India has drawn attention to the fact that these rights are guaranteed to all minorities in India by its Constitution”, and that “The Prime Minister of Pakistan has pointed out that similar provision exists in the Objectives Resolution adopted by the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan”.
• Also, “Both Governments wish to emphasise that the allegiance and loyalty of the minorities are to the State of which they are citizens and that it is to the Government of their State that they should look for the redress of their grievances.”

• Opposition to this act on account of not being in the interest of the indigenous people of the region but this contention is also not true as CAA does not apply to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura which are covered under Inner Line notified under the Bengal Eastern  Frontier Regulation,1873.
• At present total of 10 autonomous districts and territorial councils are functioning in the states of Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya with the power of legislation and administration over land water soil community forest agriculture.
• States such as Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur where the sixth schedule is not implemented are covered under the Inner Line Permit system.
• ILP offers protection for tribal communities in these states against exploitation by the socio-economically more advanced plains people. Under the system, any Indian citizen who wishes to enter these protected  areas is required to obtain an ILP, which allows him or her to stay in these states for a specified period subject to stipulated terms and conditions
• The exclusion of tribal areas from the ambit of CAA through the provisions of the sixth schedule and ILP system means that the socio-economic and cultural interests of the indigenous people of the North-east are well protected and illegal immigrants granted citizenship under CAA cannot own land or settle in these areas.
• Protests are persisting in Assam because of the impression that by granting citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindu illegal migrants, the act dilutes the Assam Accord and negates the recently concluded Supreme court-mandated updation of the National Register of Citizens. In response, the centre has stated that CAA does not dilute the sanctity of the Assam  Accord as far as the cut-off date of March 24, 1971 concerns only a few identified minorities.

According to section 14 A  of the Citizenship Act 1995 (inserted by Citizenship Amendment Act 2003)

• The Central Government may compulsorily register every citizen of India and issue a national identity card to him.
• The Central Government may maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) and for that establish a National Registration Authority.
• Registrar General, India, appointed under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969 shall act as the National Registration Authority and shall function as the Registrar General of Citizen Registration. 
• To implement CAA, citizens and illegal migrants have to be identified. So, a National Register of Indian Citizens  (NRIC) is the necessary first step.