The Union Home Ministry on March 11 notified the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), paving the way for granting of citizenship to people of certain faiths mainly Hindus, Sikhs, Jain, Buddhist, and Parsi communities, facing persecution in neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and having moved to India before 2015. The CAA was enacted by the Parliament in December 2019. It has taken four years and three months for the Modi Government to notify the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed by the Parliament in December 2019. The CAA was an integral part of the BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha polls manifesto.
It may be noted that the anti-CAA protests and riots not only put the government on the backfoot in 2019, they also brought India harsh criticism from various quarters as the new law was seen to be discriminating against Muslim. Recently, a number of leaders from the Muslim community have come forward to clarify that CAA is not discriminatory against Muslims. However, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has moved an application before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the implementation of the CAA rules. In its application, IUML said that the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 are manifestly arbitrary and create an unfair advantage in favour of a class of persons on the ground solely of their religious identity, which is impermissible under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.
The announcement of the rules comes on the back of Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent assertions that the CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections, slated for April/May. The implementation of the CAA by the Centre just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls is anticipated to intensify communal polarisation, significantly influencing the electoral discourse in West Bengal with both the opposition BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress poised to reap political dividend out of it. While the CAA might bolster the BJP’s prospects in certain constituencies, it could trigger a counter-reaction, especially among minority groups. The Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments have declared they will not impose CAA in their states.
The timing of the CAA notification right before the Lok Sabha polls can take the sting out of anti-CAA protests. As various political parties opposed to CAA will be too busy with election campaigns to organise long protests, the Centre’s shrewd move to notify the CAA rules before the polls seems to have met the purpose of minimising the possibility of long and violent protests similar to 2019 and 2020. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee termed the announcement as a ‘political gimmick’ ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Had the Union government been so serious about CAA, they could have notified it earlier,” she said. But for the citizenship-seekers, the notification comes as a big relief.
