Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016

Proposed Amendments to Citizenship Act, 1955:

• The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship.
• The Bill states that persons belonging to the minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India with or without valid documents would now onwards cease to be treated as “illegal migrants” and be eligible to apply for Indian citizenship under the provision of naturalization.
• Under the Act, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalization is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, and for 11 of the previous 14 years. The Bill relaxes this 11-year requirement to six years for persons belonging to the same six religions and three countries.
• The Bill provides that the registration of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders may be cancelled if they violate any law.

Positives:

This amendment makes it easy to obtain Indian citizenship, for those fleeing religious persecution in mentioned three countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh).

Issues:

• The Bill makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis of religion. This is in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to equality and Article 15 of the Constitution which prevents the state from discriminating among its citizens based on religion, among other things as prescribed in the provision.
• This would mean, for instance, that the sizeable population of Hindu migrants from Bangladesh living in Assam would become citizens while Muslims who migrated to Assam from East Bengal, half a century ago would continue to be harassed as ‘illegal migrants’ from Bangladesh.
• India is not like Israel, which is a Jewish state, offering the “right to return” to Jews anywhere in the world. Since India is constitutionally secular, this amendment tries to bring ‘Hindu Rashtra’ into the legal framework through the backdoor. By inviting Hindus specifically to come back to Indian citizenship, it is a GharWapsi bill of sorts.
• The amendment which seeks to make minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for applying for Indian citizenship is in violation of the Assam accord of 1985. The cut-off date for the detection and deportation of foreigners as per the Assam accord is March 25, 1971, irrespective of religious affiliation.
• The Bill allows cancellation of OCI registration for violation of any law. This is a wide ground that may cover a range of violations, including minor offences (Ex. parking in a no-parking zone).

Concerns of Assam people:

• Dilute the Assam Accord of 1985:– Post-accord, due to the insertion of Section 6A in the Citizenship Act, 1955, the cut-off date for citizenship in Assam is March 25, 1971. The proposed piece of new legislation seeks to extend this to December 31, 2014, rendering Section 6A infructuous.
• Puts the ‘indigenous language and culture’ at peril.

Religious colour to citizenship:

• The Bill looks to cater SanghParivar’s long-running agenda of making India a ‘Hindu state’ and treating this country as the ‘natural home’ to Hindus all over the world.
• Seen as an effort of the Government to consolidate its Hindu constituency by wedging the religious divide in a very subtle way in the diverse demography of Assam. The Bill, straightaway sends the Muslim immigrants of the post-1971 stream to a stateless state while giving a safe passage to their Hindu counterparts.

Question of law:

• This Bill does not actually give citizenship to anybody. It only proposes to enable the post-1971 stream of non-Muslim migrants to apply for Indian citizenship via the route of naturalisation – The Bill shall remain just an enabling piece of legislation. Future governments may very well take shelter under Section 14 of the Citizenship Act to refuse what the present government is seemingly granting.
• Proposed amendments in the Citizenship Act, 1955, are likely to collide with Section 6A therein, they violate Article 14 of the Constitution guaranteeing equality before the law.