The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), originally passed by Parliament in 2019, remained in a limbo for nearly 4.5 years. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government today announced its implementation.
The Ministry of Home Affairs will be notifying the Rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019). "These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for grant of Indian citizenship," a statement from Amit Shah's office said.
Undocumented Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh will now get Indian citizenship.
When the law was passed in 2019, widespread protests rocked some parts of India, with the Shaheen Bagh protests in New Delhi being the most high-profile protest of all. International media, egged on by the propaganda perpetuated by the Congress party, claimed that the CAA was a ploy to strip Indian Muslims of their citizenship. When a lockdown was imposed due to the Coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, the protests withered away. The Modi government decided to put the CAA on the backburner.
Nobody imagined that the Centre would revive the issue just a few weeks ahead of Lok Sabha elections. Analysts say that the BJP and Congress will be at loggerheads over the issue for the coming days.
