Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, President, All-India Muslim Jamaat welcomes CAA implementation
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi, President, All-India Muslim Jamaat welcomes CAA implementation
Hours after the Central Government notified over the Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA) the All India Muslim Jamaat President Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Bareilvi welcomed the legislation, and tried to allay fears among the Muslim community, saying that it wouldn’t impact their citizenship status.
He articulated that the Central Govt has implemented the CAA law and he welcomes it. This should have been done much earlier but better late than never.
There are a lot of misunderstandings among the Muslims regarding this law which has nothing to do with Muslims.
Adding that earlier there was no law to provide citizenship to the non-Muslims coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who faced atrocities based on religion.
He went on to add that this CAA implementation will not impact Crores of Indian Muslims at all and will not take away the citizenship of any Muslim.
In the past years, it has been observed that there were protests, because of misunderstandings created by some people among the Muslims. Every Muslim of India need to welcome the CAA.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah in February said that in categorical terms CAA was brought in to provide citizenship and not to take away anyone’s citizenship.
Amit Shah also said that Minorities in our country, and specially our Muslim community, are being provoked. CAA cannot snatch away anyone’s citizenship because there is no provision in the Act.
Adding that CAA is an act to provide citizenship to refugees who were persecuted in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
On Monday evening, the Union Home Ministry notified rules for implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections schedule.
The CAA, introduced by the
PM Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aims to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
The applications for citizenship would have to be submitted in a completely online mode, for which a web portal has been provided.
After the passage of the CAA by Parliament in December 2019 and its subsequent Presidential assent, significant protests erupted in various parts of the country. The implementation of the CAA, which has been delayed for over four years, necessitated the formulation of its associated rules.
According to the manual of parliamentary procedures, the guidelines for any legislation should have been formulated within six months of receiving the presidential assent, or the government should have sought an extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Since 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been regularly seeking extensions from the parliamentary committees to continue the process of framing the rules associated with the legislation.
Over a hundred individuals lost their lives either during the protests or due to police action subsequent to the passage of the law in Parliament.
In the midst of the past two years, over 30 district magistrates and home secretaries across nine states have been authorized with the ability to confer Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians arriving from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955.
As per Ministry of Home Affairs annual report for 2021-22, between April 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, a cumulative count of 1,414 individuals from non-Muslim minority communities originating from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan were granted Indian citizenship through registration or naturalization under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Under the Citizenship Act of 1955, Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization is granted to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan in nine states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra.
Notably, authorities in districts of Assam and West Bengal, both politically sensitive regions on this matter, have not been empowered with these citizenship-granting authorities thus far.
News Edit K.V.Raman
