Omkar Dattatray
It has become crystal clear that citizenship Amendment Act -CAA is again under focus and the government will implement the act before the upcoming general elections and this information has been given by the home minister Amit Shah. He said that notification about CAA will be issued before the general elections and he added that no one’s citizenship will be snatched by this important act. There is no provision in this important Act which provides for snatching the citizenship of any citizen. The CAA should not be politicized and all the political parties should support this act as it is not the question of Hindu/Muslim and therefore the politicians should rise above Hindu/Muslim angle and support the CAA in the interest of the country and its integrity ,sovereignty and unity .It only provides the citizenship rights to the migrants from Pakistan ,Bangladesh, Afghanistan and other countries to non Muslims like Hindus ,Sikhs ,Buddhists ,Christians and Parses etc and this was the belief of the congress after the independence of the country but later congress backed out and this it does for vote bank politics and for appeasement to minorities. The parliament had passed the CAA in 2019 and it also got the assent of the president and became an act to be implemented .But due to politics and Muslim and opposition to the act by the so called parties and the violence it could not be implemented for four years .But now the Modi government will notify the rules in this connection so that the law can be implemented .AIMIM chief Assud-din-Owasis has said that CAA is based on religion and thus should not be implemented in the country .Some other leader of the secular front has said that the implementation of CAA is unconstitutional as the petition against the Act is pending in the supreme court .So government should not implement the law when the case is pending in the top court of the country .However home minister Amit Shah has made it clear that the rules for notification of the law will be notified before the upcoming general elections and citizenship will be conferred upon the deserving citizens soon after .Under CAA ,the Modi government wants to grant Indian citizenship or nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants -Hindus ,Sikhs ,Jains ,Buddhists ,Parsis and Christians -from Bangladesh ,Pakistan ,and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31,2014.Amit Shah said CAA is the law of the country and its notification will definitely be issued and it will be issued before the polls.CAA will be implemented before Lok Sabha elections and no one should have any confusion about it .He said that granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities of the neighboring countries was a promise of the congress leadership too .When partition happened -all Hindus ,Sikhs ,Buddhists and Christians wanted to come to India after facing religious persecution there .The congress leaders had promised to give citizenship to these migrants saying that all of them are welcome but later they went back on their promise .Home minister also said that CAA is not a law to snatch the citizenship of any citizen .So Muslims should not have any misinformation or confusion about the implementation of CAA.CAA has been enacted to grant citizenship rights to the people who had come from Pakistan ,Bangladesh ,Afghanistan because they faced religious persecution in those countries and Indian government wanted to grant such people its citizenship as they reside in India for decades and it will be great injustice to them if they are deprived of the citizenship rights .No one should oppose this law as it is not against any religion .Unfortunately there were massive protests in some parts of the country after CAA was passed by the parliament in December 2019 and got presidential assent .The rules are a must for implementation of the CAA .The applicants will only have to declare the year in which they have entered the country and no documentation is required and minorities from three countries will be given citizenship of India .The promise of implementation of CAA was a major poll plank in the Lok sabha and West Bengal assembly elections and the BJP is bound to implement the CAA .The saffron party thought it as a plausible ground to gain political mileage in west Bengal polls .Over 100 people have lost their lives in the violence and protests after its passing by the parliament .since 2020 ,the home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from parliamentary committee for framing rules .Meanwhile in the last two years ,over 30 District Magistrates and home secretaries of nine states have been given powers to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs ,Buddhists ,Jains ,Parsis and Christians coming from Pakistan ,Bangladesh and Afghanistan under citizenship act 1955.At least four years have passed since the parliament has passed CAA and it has not been implemented still and therefore now Modi government has taken upon itself to get the CAA implemented as it was a poll plank in the parliamentary and West Bengal elections .Now the government will take necessary steps to implement CAA throughout the country and in this respect the needed rules will be notified before the general elections and citizenship will be granted to the deserving people and beneficiaries soon after the elections .Some people and political leaders argue that BJP government of the centre is taking about the implementation of CAA before the Lok Sabha elections with the sole purpose of taking political dividends and mileage .Whatever it may be ,but it is necessary to notify rules in the direction of implementing CAA as without rules ,the CAA will not and cannot be implemented .Therefore first thing should be first and the rules should be framed first so that CAA will be implemented .Thus the Home Minister Amit Shah is right when to said that the CAA will be implemented before the general elections .For this notification will be issued before the polls and rules will be framed and notified so that CAA is implemented across the country .Thus CAA rules will be notified before general elections and the law will also be implemented before the polls and citizenship will be granted soon thereafter .The Ministry of Home Affairs in its 2021-22 Annual Report has revealed that it has delegated powers under Citizenship Amendment ACT 2019 to grant citizenship under it .Delegated powers have been given to collectors of 13 more districts and Home Secretaries of 2 more states .With this ,collectors of 29 districts and Home Secretaries of 9states have been authorized to grant citizenship in respect of foreigners belonging to Hindu ,Sikh ,Jain ,Buddhist, and Christians or Parsi community from Pakistan ,Bangladesh and Afghanistan .To conclude it can be said that now the implementation of the CAA will be made before the upcoming general elections and the grant of citizenship will started soon thereafter.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist).
