Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for illegal migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities, who had fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014. Muslims from those countries were not given such eligibility. The act was the first time religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law. The amendment has been widely criticised as discriminating on the basis of religion, particularly for excluding Muslims.

Quotes

Because of that law (Citizenship Amendment Act) these people had faith that we would come. What would have happened to these people if that law had not been there? Sometimes we politicise everything, this is not a matter of politics but a matter of humanity. Who could have left these people in that situation?
- EAM Dr S Jaishankar, quoted by ANI Jun 8, 2023 [1] [2]

I wanted to meet the Sikhs who have come to India from Afghanistan and understand their issues. They have some problems regarding visas and citizenship. We will address the issues that they have discussed with us. Some people are still waiting to get their citizenship. We will provide all possible help regarding citizenship and visas. It is our responsibility to help them out.
- EAM Dr S Jaishankar, quoted by ANI Jun 8, 2023 [3] [4]

Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 and who has been exempted by the Central Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 or any rule or order made thereunder, shall not be treated as illegal migrant for the purposes of this Act;[101]
- The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019" . The Gazette of India. 12 December 2019.

On humanitarian grounds, it is India’s moral duty to accommodate such people who have no place to go. I want to ask those who talk of minority rights, is it not our moral duty to provide a helping hand to persecuted minorities in our neighbourhood? We are concerned about all minorities who live there… whether Christians, Parsis, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists or Hindus. The atrocities against these minorities are forcing them to flee to India. This has been the situation since 1947. They have no rights. We will have to come up with a solution.
- Narendra Modi :Interview, April 18, 2019 with Times of India 2014 was a mandate for hope and aspiration, 2019 is about confidence and acceleration

“For them (opposition), they are Muslims. For us, they are all Indians. The Act does not affect any Indian.”...
“I want to clearly state that with the CAA coming, there will be no impact on any citizen of India, practising any faith. CAA does not affect any Indian, it doesn’t harm minority interests,”...
“Pandit Nehru himself was in favour of protecting minorities in Pakistan, I want to ask Congress, was Pandit Nehru communal? Did he want a Hindu Rashtra?” ...
[much has been said about Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by those who] “love getting photographed with the group of people who want ‘Tukde Tukde’ of India.”...
“There has been talk of ‘save constitution’. I agree, Congress should say this 100 times in a day. Maybe they will realize their past mistakes. Did you forget this slogan during emergency? When state Governments were dismissed? When cabinet resolutions were torn?”
- PM Modi, PM Modi on CAA: Nehru was in favour of protecting Pak minorities, did he want a Hindu Rashtra? [5]

An atmosphere of hate was systematically built up. The whole purpose of it was to suggest that only one community has a veto over decision-making in India.
- Swapan Dasgupta. Quoted from Twitter on Mar 12, 2020 [6]

The facts here are very clear, but rest assured that they will be contested. Like most Hindu-Muslim riots, this riot started as a Muslim pogrom on Hindus, with some spectacular killings of Hindu policemen, but then Hindus started striking back, and ultimately the Muslim death toll surpassed the Hindu one. ... Major media have been caught in the act of fabricating fake news... Same manipulation in Wikipedia, which suppressed corrections; or how blatantly fake news was quickly turned into the received wisdom.
- Elst, Koenraad March 15, 2020: Quora censorship on the Delhi riots

There is nothing anti-Muslim about CAA but it is anti-Hindu not to recognize the suffering and oppression Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have had to endure, as well as the other religious minorities in these Islamic states.
- David Frawley. Dr David Frawley on Twitter on Mar 13, 2020

The 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act violates India’s international obligations to prevent deprivation of citizenship on the basis of race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin as found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights treaties that India has ratified. The 1992 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities calls on governments to protect the existence and identity of religious minorities within their territories and to adopt the appropriate measures to achieve this end. Governments are obligated to ensure that people belonging to minority groups, including religious minorities, may exercise their human rights without discrimination and in full equality before the law. Governments also have an obligation to ensure gender equality. To the extent that the process has a disproportionately harmful impact on the citizenship rights of women and girls, it also violates the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
- Human Rights Watch, India: Protests, Attacks Over New Citizenship Law (April 9, 2020)

The citizenship law and verification process are contrary to the basic principles of secularism and equality enshrined in the Indian constitution and in domestic law. Indian authorities should immediately reverse course and adopt rights-respecting laws and policies regarding citizenship. They should also uphold the rights to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly.
- Human Rights Watch, India: Protests, Attacks Over New Citizenship Law (April 9, 2020)

I think it is, without exaggeration, probably the most dangerous piece of legislation that we've had because it amounts to truly destroying the very character of the Indian state and the constitution. [...] Central to the idea was that your religious identity would be irrelevant to your belonging, and it's that which is being turned on its head. It's extremely worrying.
- Harsh Mander, as quoted in India passes controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims (December 17, 2019) by Helen Regan, Swati Gupta and Omar Khan, CNN

What exactly did I say that Ankit Sharma was stabbed 400 times? Or that Shahrukh picked up gun and roamed about on the streets of Delhi? What made them collect petrol bombs and acid on the roofs? And more importantly, there are no riots when people chant ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ or ‘Afzal hum sharminda hai’, painting Khilafat 2.0 on Jamia walls is not considered provocative nor is giving a call to hit the streets. But my request to the police to get the road opened is considered provocative.
- Kapil Mishra. Speaking to OpIndia Editor Ajeet Bharti, quoted in Exclusive: BJP leader Kapil Mishra in conversation with OpIndia about Delhi riots and subsequent blame games

I asked the ruling government in the Parliament whether they had the numbers or data to prove that there was pervasive persecution of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Sikhs, and Christians. Amit Shah said ‘lakhon-crorodon’ (lakhs and crores) – which is a very tall and unverified claim and not even remotely substantiated. I asked him for the exact number, broken down nation-wise between the three Islamic nations, and there was no answer given.
- Asaduddin Owaisi. Quoted in Asaduddin Owaisi denies persecution of Hindus and other minorities in Islamic nations in a shameful interview

A global coalition has unleashed a campaign to overthrow the elected government of Narendra Modi and prominent academics privately hint at the need for his removal, along with Home Minister, Amit Shah, by any means. These luminaries include some of the most celebrated Indian-origin academics in the world’s leading institutions, one of whom once proposed the ceding of J&K to Pakistan in the presence of the bureaucrat who went on to become India’s Prime Minister. The same academic advised the government of Tony Blair in London to refuse engagement with the Vajpayee administration after the 1998 nuclear tests. Some of these individuals are indubitably engaged with foreign security services of hostile countries and conspire with their arms-length intelligence operations through media assets in New York, Washington and London. Unfortunately, the narrative on India is completely beyond the sway of the Indian authorities and their official and unofficial spokespersons. The latter apparently have neither the intellectual skills to prevail in the deadly contest of fabricated insinuation nor the political will or means to gain access to major media outlets abroad. There can be no starker instance of the dismal situation than their total inability to refute the outrageous portrayal of India’s humane CAA legislation as discriminatory and unjust. The shocking intellectual nullity and illiteracy of the putative nationalist agents deputed abroad, many of them, it is suspected, compromised with foreign governments as well, is a cause for utter dismay.
Gautam Sen Jun 13 2020 Faltering India

You don’t know how the whole world is spitting on India because of this law. Think of it this way: your neighbour has a servant who is ill-behaved and a thief. And now I am bringing that thief to my house and giving him a job.
- Kafeel Khan, speech protesting against the CAA Aligarh Muslim University. December 2019 [7] [8]

After winning the election, we shall make a memorial for the anti-CAA people’s movement that has been ongoing in Assam over the last few years. The memorial shall remember the people’s struggle and sacriﬁces, protest songs and paintings.
- Pradyut Bordoloi, chairman of the Congress campaign committee After Rahul Gandhi's promise, Assam Congress vows to build anti-CAA memorial on winning polls 16 Feb 2021, also [9]

In the coming months, Guwahati will see a new landmark — a grand memorial in memory of the anti-CAA movement to be built by the incoming Congress government. This will be the state’s message to BJP. No CAA in Assam.
- Ripun Bora, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President Ripun Bora. After Rahul Gandhi's promise, Assam Congress vows to build anti-CAA memorial on winning polls 16 Feb 2021, also [10]

The struggle against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. Congress promises to build a memorial for the anti-CAA movement after winning the election. Assam doesn’t want CAA.
- Gaurav Gogoi After Rahul Gandhi's promise, Assam Congress vows to build anti-CAA memorial on winning polls 16 Feb 2021, also [11]

We want to make sure that future generations remember how the people stood up to the autocratic rule of the BJP and its imposition of an anti-Assamese law.
- Abdul Khaleque (Assamese politician). After Rahul Gandhi's promise, Assam Congress vows to build anti-CAA memorial on winning polls 16 Feb 2021, also [12]

Whatever happens, we will not allow them (BJP) to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
- Rahul Gandhi. After Rahul Gandhi's promise, Assam Congress vows to build anti-CAA memorial on winning polls 16 Feb 2021, also [13]

Nationalism, far from being reversed, made further headway. The biggest and most frightening setback came in India, where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir – a semi-autonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship.
- George Soros, At the World Economic Forum at Davos 2020, quoted from Malhotra R. & Viswanathan V. (2022). Snakes in the Ganga : Breaking India 2.0.