The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019/CAA amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 and it is meant for the religiously persecuted minorities like Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis of the three specified countries namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It says that any person belonging to the above communities, who has entered into India on or before 31st December 2014 and staying here, shall not be treated as illegal migrants. The CAA has nothing to do with the present 18 crore Indian Muslims, who have equal rights like their Hindu counterparts. No Indian citizen would be asked to produce any document to prove his citizenship after this Act.
Moreover, the Act does not cancel the naturalization laws. Therefore, any person including the Muslim migrants from any foreign country, seeking to be an Indian citizen, can apply for the same under the existing laws. There is no bar on Muslims from anywhere in the world to seek Indian Citizenship under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, which deals with citizenship by naturalization. The Act also does not deal with the deportation of illegal immigrants and therefore the concern of a section of the people including Muslims and students that CAA is against Muslim minorities is unjustifiable. CAA does not prevent any Muslim, who is persecuted in the above Islamic countries for practicing their version of Islam, from applying for Indian citizenship under the existing laws. One of the several objectives of CAA is stoppage of further influx of illegal immigrants, who have been eating into the tax-payers money. This will benefit the country and its population in the time to come. While CAA provides the persecuted minorities of the three Islamic countries, a special status in the naturalization process, it does not prevent other communities to avail the general asylum process. Some Muslim leaders have understood the ramifications of the Act and have appealed to the Muslims from various platforms to maintain peace and brotherhood and keep away from divisive forces on the pretext of CAA.
-Kashish Warsi,
President, Bartiya Sufi Foundation
