CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT BILL 2019 | CAB | CHANGES

CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT BILL

(CAB)

In this post we will get know about the citizenship amendment bill 2019.

What kind of problem this bill is going to solve?
What changes will it bring?
And very important that what problems people are having with this bill

To know about this topic very well, we should know the meaning of these two important terms,

First is "Persecution" which simple meaning is to misbehave or doing violence or discriminating. If one group is doing violence or discriminating on the other group it is called Persecution. Persecution could be of many types such as religious persecution, Political persecution, and being racist.

The second important term of this topic is "Immigrant"
If any person leaves his country and starts living in other country permanently then he is an immigrant for that nation.

Next we will understand the relationship of India with the neighbor countries. Which is very interesting to know. So this is India and its Neighbor countries

Relationship Of India with neighbor countries

Between 12th to 20th Century, due to religious persecution in Iran, The Parsis of Iran migrated at a large scale towards India

In 1947 partition happened between India and Pakistan due to which more than 1 crore people migrated to each other country.

And because of this Partition, The Bangladesh Freedom Movement between 1960-71 lakhs of Bangladeshi people migrated to India because of this war for freedom

After that in 1959-60 due China - Tibet war Tibet many Tibetians migrated to India.

And due to Soviet - Afghan war and religious persecution over there Afghans also migrated to India.

Like this only in between 1980-2000 due to Sri Lanka Civil War, Sri Lankan Tamils came here

And during 2015-17, The Rohingyas of Myanmar migrated to India

According to the senses report of 2001 a huge amount of migrants in India are from Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The issue of Citizenship in India is discussed in two places -

1. Constitution of India and

2. Citizenship of India Act, 1955

Constitution says that who will be the proper Indian Citizens in 1950, So the provision of the Constitution was helpful for our grand parents and fore fathers.

But the provisions after 1950 like who will call as Indian Citizen after 1950.

How today any can be Indian Citizen or in coming days how any will able to acquire Indian citizenship? All these things are discussed in Indian Citizenship Act 1955.

Main purpose of this bill -

Now let us see what is the main purpose of this Bill. This bill wants to change the way of acquiring citizenship according to the act so how ?

Firstly by changing the definition of illegal immigrant. Till now the Illegal immigrant defined in this Act as, If any person who comes to India for living without having valid passport or having fraud documents Or he has exceeded the permission limit of staying in India. In that case that person will be called as illegal immigrant and he will be forced to leave the country.

Changes 1 :

But this bill changes the whole definition of this act. And it says that before 31st December 2014 any people who has came to India by any ways and if they are from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and they belong to these 6 communities- Hindus, Sikhs,Buddhists,Jains, Parsis, Christians. So now these peoples will not called as illegal immigrants. So according to the act people who were called as illegal immigrants, bill amends that thing and all these people who came from these 3 countries will not be an illegal immigrant.

Second big change is coming in process of Acquiring citizenship, Before it was like, if you are coming from Pakistan and willing to take Indian Citizenship. So for that you have to spend 11 years in India or have to do any government service and after that you will get Indian Citizenship.

Changes 2 :

This bill changes this whole process and it says that, If you are from these 3 countries and you belong to these 6 communities from these countries then you have to spend only 5 years instead of 11 to get Indian citizenship. So according to this the date has been given since 2014 from December 2014 to 2019 its 5 years and all these illegal immigrants will convert in to Indian Citizens.

Problems –

So the first major problem coming across this bill is that-

Why the government has chosen only these 3 countries and why only 6 communities from these countries and why you excluded other neighbor countries and other communities? and it is a violation of Article 14.

Answer :

And for the answer the answer of this question I have listened to the parliamentary discussions and a saw Harish Salve on a channel answering the questions regarding this bill, He said that the main moto of this bill is to expand the loss of migration and to relax it. So now how much it should be expanded and relaxed, its a policy matter

Amit Shah told that in our neighboring countries minority communities are being tortured and they are affected by religious persecution. So why we chooses only these 3 countries?

Because the constitution structure of these 3 countries declares it as a Islamic State not as a secular country and in these countries these 6 communities are minorities and are going through religious persecution that's why we selected these 3 countries and the 6 communities.

History of Assam -

The second most and big opposition is coming from the north eastern states of India, Specifically from Assam,

And this opposition also has a deep rooted history, let us know that

From 1920's when riots began to happen all over in India, Since then only from east Bengal people started migrating to north eastern states specifically in Assam. So its usual that the people who were migrated there were started holding lands over there, So slowly what happened that the population of refugees started increasing as compare to the locals over there. After that from 1948 India- Pakistan to 1971 Bangladesh formation lakhs of people migrated to the North east state after the independence during the time of State re organisation. The cities of north east were worried about ethnicity related to the culture and language. That's why North east states was given special status same as Jammu and Kashmir like 6th schedule, In a line permit and many like this.

Now in 1978 what happened that Assam's MP Heera Lal Patwari dies and because of this re election has to be done and Then the matter which to existence that suddenly the majority of registered voters in Assam increases, Means the majority of refugees increased a lot, and Elections was cancelled with the immediate effect and Student leaders started protesting saying that this Illegal influx should be stopped and all the illegal immigrants should be detained and deported.

This protest is known as Assam Andolan. which was from 1979 to 1985, And the result of that protest was Assam Accord which came in 1985.

Assam Accord says that if you belong to any religion and if you have migrated to Assam after 24th march 1971 then you will not be called as a citizen you will be an illegal immigrant and to fulfill the objective of Assam Accord government introduced NRC ("National Register of Citizens") in which 19 Lakh illegal immigrants were noticed.

Changes 3 :

But now since the CAB has came it says that it should be considered from 2014 instead of 1971, before December 2014 people who migrated to India from these 3 countries and from those 6 communities will not be called as Illegal immigrants and will be called as citizens.

So this was Citizenship Amendment Bill.

Which problem it is trying to solve and what problems are people having with this bill.

I hope you like this post and you have understood about this new CAB 2019.

But do let me know in the comment box that what you think will majority people get benefited by this bill? And for benefiting the majority, is it right to do this with minorities, do let me know.

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