On Wednesday, the upper house of the Indian parliament passed the contentious Amendment bill.
The bill has raised huge furore amongst the opposition.
persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afganistan would be eligible to apply for citizenship of India.
CAB is the amendment of 64 years old citizenship law. Earlier a migrant had to live or work in the country for 11 years before applying for citizenship. Anyone who entered India before December 31, 2014, are eligible. Now a migrant from Hindu, Christan, Sikh, Jain, Parsi or Buddhists community can apply for citizenship even if he has lived or worked in India for 5 years.
After the Independence India and Pakistan signed Nehru-Liaquat pact according to which both the neighbouring countries would not discriminate with their respective minorities. India never discriminated against the Minorites.
In India, within the time period of 60 years, from 1951 to 2011 population of Hindus slipped from 84 per cent to 79 per cent while population of Muslims increased from 8 per cent to 14 per cent. In Pakistan in minority Hindu dwindled from 14 percent to 1.6 percent.
Pakistan, Afganistan and Bangladesh are Islamic Republic nations. Minorities face huge discrimination in former countries.
There are hundreds of thousands of refugees who have been dwelling in Jammu and Kashmir since Independence. These people are stateless people and get no rights. Such people will be facilitated by CAB.
All in one, CAB will not discriminate with Indian minorities in any ground. Giving citizenship to persecuted people is Humanterian issue. We should not communalise it.
Why Citizenship Amendment bill is Required?
