PM Modi-led government implements CAA afore upcoming LS Polls 2024
PM Modi-led government implements CAA afore upcoming LS Polls 2024
The PM Modi-led Government implemented the controversial CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, thus marking a significant development four years after the controversial law.
The implementation clears the path for granting citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim.
refugees from India’s neighbouring countries.
This move comes before he seeks a rare third term in vote due by May.
Protesters held placards as they demonstrate against India’s citizenship law in New Delhi
Reportedly, the controversial law passed in 2019 by PM Modi led government allowed Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from India’s neighbouring countries.
It declared that Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from mainly Muslim Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before December 31, 2014, were eligible for citizenship.
The law was declared “anti-Muslim” by several rights groups for keeping the community out of its ambit, raising questions over the secular character of the world’s largest democracy.
Modi’s government had not drafted the rules for the law following nationwide protests over its passage in December 2019.
Violence broke out in the capital, New Delhi, amidst the protests in which dozens, most of them Muslims, were killed and hundreds injured during days of rioting.
It was an integral part of BJP’s 2019 [election] manifesto. This will pave [the] way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India referring to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
As per Muslim groups, the law, combined with a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), can discriminate against India’s 200 million Muslims – the world’s third-largest Muslim population. They fear the government might remove the citizenship of Muslims without documents in some border states.
The government denies accusations that it is anti-Muslim and has defended the law, saying it is needed to help minorities facing persecution in Muslim-majority nations.
It says the law is meant to grant citizenship, not take it away from anyone, and has called the earlier protests politically motivated.
Human rights groups allege that the mistreatment of Muslims has increased under Modi, who took over as prime minister in 2014.
The country, since then, has seen an escalated number of attacks against Muslims andŕ their livelihood, including the demolition of Muslim homes and properties.
Cases of mob lynching under the pretext of protecting cows, considered holy by some Hindus, have also increased during Modi’s time in power.
Critics believe the often-armed cow vigilantes, which used to operate on the fringes of society, became mainstream after the BJP took over.
Reports of hate speech against Muslims have also increased in the country, averaging nearly two anti-Muslim hate speech events per day in 2023.
A report revealed that three out of four hate speech incidents occurred in states ruled by the BJP.
Notably, the CAA was an integral part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The law was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019 after Modi government 2.0 came to power.
News Edit K.V.Raman
