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The Indian government on March 13 reiterated that the newly implemented Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA, does not curtail the freedom and opportunity of Indian Muslims.
The Act has been criticised by opposition parties, who label the move “discriminatory and motivated by the approaching parliamentary elections”.
The government also asserted that there is no bar on Muslims from anywhere in the world to seek Indian citizenship.
“Muslims from anywhere in the world can seek Indian citizenship under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, which deals with citizenship by naturalisation,” the Home Ministry said.
The Central government on Monday announced the rules via the CAA to reduce the qualification period of application for citizenship from 11 to 5 years – this pertains to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
The Home Ministry insisted that the Act “does not prevent any Muslim, who is persecuted in those Islamic countries for practising their version of Islam, from applying for Indian citizenship under the existing laws”.
“CAA does not cancel the naturalisation laws. Any person, including Muslim migrants from any foreign country seeking to be an Indian citizen, can apply for the same under the existing laws,” the ministry said.
Indian Muslims need not worry as CAA has not made any provision to impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the present 180 million Indian Muslims, who have equal rights like their Hindu counterparts, the ministry said.
Protests have erupted in several parts of the country against the decision to implement the CAA as some fear the law could be used to declare them illegal immigrants and take away their citizenship.
The government denies this and says the law is needed to help minorities facing persecution in Muslim-majority nations.
“No Indian citizen would be asked to produce any document to prove citizenship”, the ministry said, adding that the Citizenship Act does not deal with the deportation of illegal immigrants.
The ministry explained that the law was needed to “customise the citizenship system and control illegal migrants”.
The Constitution of India grants the government the right to provide citizenship from a humanitarian perspective to refugees who face religious persecution in their countries.
Indo-Asian News Service
