Centre notifies implementation of CAA: What it means

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday announced the notification of the rules to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 and subsequently got the president’s assent but there were protests in several parts of the country against it. The law could not come into effect as rules had not been notified till now.
Union minister Amit Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of the Constitution.
“The central government notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024. These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation. With this notification PM Modi has delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of our constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries,” Shah said in a post on x.
What it means?
With the CAA rules being issued, the Modi government will now start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from the three countries.
The 2019 CAA amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 allowing Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities who fled from the neighbouring Muslim majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014 due to “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution”.
However, the Act excludes Muslims. Under CAA 2019 amendment, migrants who entered India by December 31, 2014, and had suffered “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their country of origin, were made eligible for citizenship by the new law. These type of migrants will be granted fast track Indian citizenship in six years.
The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalization of these migrants from eleven years to five.
How the political parties reacted
Will oppose CAA if it discriminates people, saya West Bengal CM Mamata
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she would oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) if it discriminates against groups of people.
Addressing a press conference at the state secretariat, Banerjee said, “Let me be very clear that we will oppose anything that discriminates people.”
Designed to polarise polls, says Congress
The Congress alleged that the timing of notifying the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is evidently designed to polarise the coming Lok Sabha elections.
“After seeking nine extensions for the notification of the rules, the timing right before the elections is evidently designed to polarise the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.
“The prime minister claims that his government works in a business-like and time-bound manner. The time taken to notify the rules for the CAA is yet another demonstration of the prime minister’s blatant lies,” he said in a post on X.