{"id":399501,"date":"2019-01-23T13:30:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T08:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthkiawaaz.com\/2019\/01\/will-citizenship-amendment-bill-bring-peace-or-turmoil-in-the-country\/"},"modified":"2019-02-13T11:00:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T05:30:43","slug":"will-citizenship-amendment-bill-bring-peace-or-turmoil-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthkiawaaz.com\/2019\/01\/will-citizenship-amendment-bill-bring-peace-or-turmoil-in-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Will The Citizenship Amendment Bill Bring Peace Or Turmoil To The Country?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill<\/a>, 2019 passed earlier this month in the Lok Sabha, has created a political backlash in Assam and rest of Northeast India. The Bill states that illegal migrants belonging to specified minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan will not be treated as illegal migrants under the Act, making them eligible for Indian citizenship. Minority communities falling under this category are Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians and Parsis. This denotes that illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who are Muslims, other minorities who do not belong to the above groups (for example Jews), or atheists who do not recognize themselves with any religious community, will not be eligible for citizenship.<\/p> This bill resolves to modify the Citizenship Act, 1955, which did not allow citizenship rights to any category of illegal migrants. The contentious bill appears to be a follow up of the promise made by the BJP before 2014 elections to grant citizenship rights to people belonging to the Hindu community who are persecuted in the neighbouring countries. The 2014 Election Manifesto of BJP<\/a> stated- “India shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus and they shall be welcome to seek refuge here.”<\/em><\/p> The problem is that this provision infringes on the right to equality assured under Article 14 of the Constitution because it provides biased treatment to illegal migrants just on the basis of their religious belief. The Bill has not yet become law, as it is yet to be passed by the Rajya Sabha.<\/p> The bill also mandates that the registration of the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card-holders can be cancelled in case of violation of any law. The OCI is an immigration status authorizing a foreign citizen of Indian origin to live as well as work in India indefinitely. But this bill will only take into account the grant of citizenship to those who migrated to India before December 31, 2014.<\/p> Assam’s finance minister Mr. Himanta Biswa Sarma speaking to press on January 9, 2019, said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is politically neutral and will not impact BJP’s prospects in the state in the general elections. He said that even if it does have an impact on two-three seats, the party (BJP) is ready to take a hit in the larger interest of the country.<\/p>