CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT , 2019

Disclaimer : The views expressed are purely personal and are based on my research work. It does not reflect any of the political sentiments.

Deepanjal Das , a 19 year old boy from Chaygoan ( a town in Kamrup district of Assam ) was succumbed to death after a bullet fired by a police personnel hit him . Deepanjal was protesting against the very contentious " The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019" along with thousands of others. However, it was not only Deepanjal but also several others who laid down their lives while protesting against the act. The CAA took the entire country and especially the North-Eastern region by storm. People from across the length and breadth of the country took into their streets and violent protests were witnessed. So, let us see what this Citizenship Amendment Act is and where the bone of contention lies.

         The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 to make illegal immigrants which belongs to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and comes under the religious ambit of Hindu, Sikh , Buddhist , Jain , Parsi and Christian citizens of India. In other words , the act intends to make it easier for people from these neighbouring countries, belonging to thses religious faiths and have entered India on or before 31 December 2014 to become citizens of India . The main objective of this act is to grant Indian Citizenship to these people of minority communities , which comes from the countries where Muslim is predominant and might face religious persecution there.

            Moving forward , the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 , was passed by the Indian Parliament on 11 December 2019 and received the President's assent on 12 December 2019 and it came into force on 10 January 2020 . The CAA amendment the Citizenship Act of 1955, which provides citizenship on the basis of four grounds i.e. on birth , on descent , on registration and on naturalization .

           After knowing what CAA is , what provisions it have , when it became a law etc one might wonder what led the government to bring such act . Because there are hundreds of other acts a government can bring up to . What led the government to specifically bring this act ?

             There are thousands of Hindus, Sikhs, Jain , Buddhists , Christians and Parsis who have entered India after facing religious persecution in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan without any valid documents and these refugees have been facing difficulty in getting Long Term Visa or Indian Citizenship . These Hindus who are persecuted due to religion has no other place to go except India . It was mainly because of these issues , the government decided to come up with this act , which would address the concerns of these refugees .

              However, if these issue were to be so simple obviously , there wouldn't be such violent upsurge against it . Not everyone share a common vision with the government when it comes to this matter . Many people ranging from scholars , academicians to pressure groups , interest groups to national as well as international think tanks pointed out many fallacies in this act and have expressed that this law is a matter of grave concern.

             Now, where the bone of contention lies ? Many people have expressed concern that the act makes distinction on the basis of religion . It is a law specially designed to target the Muslim community because it fails to allow Shia , Balochi and Ahmadiya muslim in Pakistan and Hazaras in Afghanistan who also face persecution to apply for citizenship . Some also thinks that this amendment is unprecedented , in the sense that never before religion has been specially identified in the Citizenship law as the ground for distinguishing between citizens and non citizens. Some also argues that the law contradicts Article 14 of the Constitution where it guarantees equality to all persons , citizens and foreigners and differentiating between people on the grounds of religion would be violation of the Constitution . While others points out that India is already a over populated country and granting citizenship to these people would put a strain to country's resources and the rush for jobs would also surge.

              So, we have the government's stance in one end and the concerns of people on the other end and does it makes the act very contentious. Many state governments including Punjab, West Bengal, Kerala,Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh had passed resolutions in their respective state assemblies against CAA , which depicts their clear stance against the act. Since, people have grave concern about the act , many have filed petitions in the apex court i.e the Supreme Court of India , so that it could check whether the act is just or not and also its constitutionality.

Let's move on to the subject on why there was a furious agitation and the ramifications after Citizenship Amendment Bill was turned into Citizenship Amendment Act in North-East India, where the whole world watched closely and impacted India's reputation in the international fora.
                
             If any part of the country , where severe protests were witnessed and the violent clashes between protesters and police personnels occured is in North-East India. People for generations , haven't seen such an unprecedented agitation, So, let us see what led to such high scale intensity protest in the entire northeast India and would be dealing with Assam  later on in this article , where there is altogether a different story.

          Mizoram, which shares a land boundary of 318 km with Bangladesh , fears that Buddhist Chakmas and Hindu Hajongs from it may take advantage from the act and can lead to influx of these people into the state.  So, this led to protest against CAA which were carried out by indigenous tribals of the state, altogether the state is covered under Inner Line Permit (ILP) and has been excluded from the influence of CAA.
         
          The tribals of Meghalaya are against the Citizenship Amendment Act because they don't want outsiders coming into their land or dominating their economy. Meghalaya is anxious and apprehensive of Bengali stock, since the state is not covered under ILP like Mizoram and some other states but is under Sixth schedule in which the state has been largely kept outside the ambit of CAA.

               In Dimapur, Nagaland thousands of people led by students from different  colleges led the protest against CAA, altogether the state has been kept excluded from the purview of CAA because the ILP is in force.

              Groups in Arunachal Pradesh fear that the new rules might benefit Chakmas and Tibetans and have put clear stance against CAA . Altogether the ILP is in force in the state there's nothing to worry about in the greater context.

         In Manipur , protests were witnessed because the state also wanted ILP status like some north eastern states , so that it could provide permissions to outsiders in entering their state. Accordingly, ILP regime was extended to Manipur on 11 December 2019, when President Ram Nath kovind signed the order. After that, Manipur became the forth state after Arunachal, Nagaland and Manipur  where ILP is applicable.

          If we talk about Tripura, altogether some parts of the state is under Sixth schedule, it is one of the most affected state because of the influx of migrants from Bangladesh. Since colonial times, the state had witnessed several waves of large scale migration from Bangladesh , which shares 856 km land boundary with it . It drastically altered the demography of the state , if we go by statistics , the indigenous tribes accounted for about 80% of the state population at the time of independence , now they are barely 30%. So , there were large scale protest against the act, where almost 200 were detained and furious clashes with the police personnels could be seen.

Now, let's bring Assam into the picture. I think, the whole country haven't seen such an uprising from the people of Assam in decades. Thousands of people took into their roads, clashed with the police, took out rallies and captured the headlines of the national as well as international media outlets. The illegal immigrants from Bangladesh has always been an issue for the Assamese people. To understand the issue properly we need to go back a little bit in Assam's history. If we go back to the British Raj, the Britishners used to bring immigrants to the region of Assam from Bengal for various purposes. Even after partition , there was large scale movement of illegal immigrants from the then East Pakistan to Assam . When there was Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, the aftermath resulted in the large scale movement of people to Assam. These were two of the major waves of migration in post independence. All these led to the upsurge in Bengali speaking people in the state. So, all these added up and a severe movement was started in 1979 and went till 1985 which was called the Assam Movement ( also known as Anti Foreigners Agitation ). The movement was led by All Assam Student Union (AASU) and several other organizations and its main objective was to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

              The movement ended up signing the "Assam Accord" in 1985 between the then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and AASU ( also with other establishments), which states that illegal immigrants heading in Assam from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971 would be detected and deported. For this purpose, the exercise of National Register of Citizens were conducted so that it could detect and deport such infiltrators. It is explicitly written in Assam Accord of 1985 that " Foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 shall continue to be detected , deleted and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners".

            Now, the first reason why the Assamese people are protesting against CAA, is because it clearly contradicts the above mentioned statement in the Assam Accord. While in CAA, it mentions to provide citizenship to those specific communities who came before 31 December 2014 and in Assam Accord it states to detect and deport who came on or after March 25, 1971. So, it makes CAA very contentious and undermined the Assam Accord. 

           Some also argues that the prolonged exercise of the National Register of Citizens would also become null and void because the CAA gives fresh chance to the Bengali Hindus who were left out of NRC to acquire Indian Citizenship. If we take other reasons, there are an estimated 20 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants in Assam and they have inalienably altered the demography of the state, besides putting severe strain on the state's resources and economy.

            The Assamese people also fears that immigrants would let to the erosion of its indigenous culture. If we go by census data of 2011, Assamese speaking population was only 48% , less than half of the population of the entire state , so it makes CAA a very sensitive issue to the Assamese people. Although some parts of the state are included in the Sixth schedule and they are Bodoland Territorial Area , Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, where they have been kept away from the purview of CAA. But the whole Brahmaputra Valley is not immune by any such provisions and which lets to increase fear among its people. Some people in the state , also points out that by giving citizenship to those immigrants, they would be legitimate citizens and would be joining the queue of jobs and that can potentially lower opportunities for the indigenous and the locals. So, broadly these were the main reasons behind the uprising.

One of the most violent clashes Assam has ever witnessed is when Citizenship Amendment Bill was turned to Citizenship Amendment Act, where law and order was out of control from the hands of the police. The people carried out mass protests, chanting slogans against the government. There were destruction of public property. People burnt public vehicles, posters-banners , blocked the roads , burnt effigy of ministers . Local leaders also organised campaigns and people joined them in large numbers. There was complete chaos in the state and Accordingly to India Today , in Guwahati 4 people were dead in police firing, 175 arrested and more than 1400 were detained. The railways were halted, trains were diverted and the Central Government had to deploy army , paramilitary troops in the state to bring the situation under control.

        The state government imposed restrictions on government teachers from posting political posts on social medias. Many Assamese laureates returned back their awards they received and many local artists stopped doing cultural programmes. Internet was suspended for many weeks as the state government felt that the use of What'sapp and social media could trigger rumours. Section 144 and Criminal Procedure Code ( CrPC) was imposed and all the regular activities were stopped. In the midst of chaos, a very important summit was supposed to be organised where the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would have visited Assam and would hold talk with his Indian counterpart. But the summit was cancelled by the Japanese side , as they watched those widespread protest. The whole world including the United States monitored the situation in Assam very closely and United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released factsheet on CAA and could impose sanctions on India , if US President approves it.

                Now, let's focus on the future, what the government and people collectively needs to do so as to avoid further friction areas. The Way Forward is ---- Since the matter now rest with Supreme Court , it should properly interpret the act and whatever would be the verdict from it , it is our duty to respect and obey it. India has a responsibility to protect those who are persecuted in its neighbourhood but the methods must be in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution. Further, people from North-East and especially from Assam should be engage in more constructive talks with the government and they should collectively design out some mechanisms so that the interests of the people are properly addressed.