The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a notification inviting applications for citizenship from ‘non-Muslim’ refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The notification, issued on Friday, also called for applications from the ‘non-Muslim’ refugees residing in 13 districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Chattisgarh.
The Union home ministry, in the notification, demands immediate implementation of the order under the Citizenship Act 1955 and the rules framed under the law in the year 2009, even though the rules unde the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) enacted in 2019 are yet to be framed by the government.
It should be noted that this is the same CAA which led to large number of protests erupting all around the country opposing the act. The Shaheen Bagh protest in Delhi—a peaceful sit-in that had lasted more than 100 days, led by Muslim and non-Muslim women protested this CAA. Although, the protest site was cleared by the police, citing Covid-19 as the reason.
The religiously discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)—a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan residing in India, passed in early 2020, led to nationwide protests against the CAA and spurred state and nonstate violence, largely targeting Muslims.
And in February 2020, the worst Hindu-Muslim mob violence in more than three decades had erupted in Delhi. More than 50 people died and 200 others were injured, mostly Muslims. The Delhi Minorities Commission investigated and found that the violence and allegations of police brutality and complicity were “seemingly planned and directed to teach a lesson to a certain community which dared to protest against a discriminatory law.”
“In exercise of powers conferred under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955), the central government hereby directs that powers exercisable by it for registration as citizen of India under Section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act 1955 in respect of any person belonging to minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, residing in the districts mentioned and the states mentioned below….,” the notification said.