Amit Shah, the Home Minister of India, on the 9th of December, is going table the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB,) 2019 and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Parliament session.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, promises citizenship to individuals belonging to communities such as the Sikhs, the Hindus, the Jains, the Buddhists, the Christians and the Parsis from countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Recently, during a Cabinet meeting, the Central Government cleared the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
Opposition parties like the Indian National Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP,) the Aam Aadmi Party (AP,) the Communist Party of India (CPI,) the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and others are against the Bill.
Asaddudin Owaisi, the President of the All India Majlis e Ittehadul, even criticised the Central Government’s decision of clearing Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
Mr. Owaisi said by clearing the CAB Bill, 2019, the Union Government is trying to adapt two nation theory of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He said during the freedom struggle, Jinnah Ali was successful in encouraging people to support the two nation theory, due to which India was partitioned and the Nation was divided into India and Pakistan.
On the other hand, the NRC process is for the people to identify their citizenship in India. Similar to Assam, the NRC process would be carried out across India. However, the Central Government clarified about the process and said the list would not be based on religion and would be without any discrimination.
In many places across India, people are protesting against the NRC stating the process would destroy the secular foundation of India. A few of the protesters condemned the process and said the NRC is anti poor and against the migrant, tribal population residing in India.
Highlighting one such incident, the protesters said, the NRC was first carried out in Assam and almost 19 lakh people were excluded from the list. A few retired officers who served for the Nation were deprived off their citizenship due to lack of documents.
The Union Government announced to implement the NRC by 2024.
Whereas, the CAB, 2019, is said to be discussed in the Parliament and may get clearance as the majority of the Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Parliament are of ruling Party.
However, an official announcement regarding the CAB’s clearance in the Lok Sabha is yet to be made.
Stay tuned for further updates.
