The Centre on Monday announced the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, a move that comes four years after the contentious law was passed, and paves the way for citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The rules were notified days ahead of the expected announcement of the Lok Sabha elections. With this, 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.
“These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for the grant of Indian citizenship,” a home ministry spokesperson said.
“The applications will be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided,” the spokesperson added.
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, with many opposition parties speaking out against the law, calling it “discriminatory.” The law could not come into effect as the rules had not been notified till now.
Since 2020, the home ministry has been taking extensions at regular intervals from the parliamentary committee for framing the rules.
No document will be sought from the applicants, an official said.
On 27 December, 2023, union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that no one could stop the implementation of the CAA as it is the law of the land, and had accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misleading the people on the issue.
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