CAA : For or Against the spirit of Indian Constitution?

Key Words: CAA, protest, Celebrity, Islamic countries, Immigrants, Shaheen Bagh, BJP, citizenship, Illegal Immigrants.

Author- Shobhit Dagur

Overview

A large debate was witnessed by India in 2020. CAA is abbreviation for Citizen Amendment Act (2020), which was initially called CAB, Citizen Amendment Bill. The Citizenship Act, in India, was passed in 1956. On 11th december, 2019, BJP led by PM Naredra Modi in its second term, amended this act. This received rage in all forms of media such as print and television as well as a series of public protests. Shaheen Bagh ( Delhi-Noida border) witnessed hefty protests which towards the end became violent resulting in public and private property damage.

Fundamental Elements of CAA

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB) was introduced by the Home Minister, Amit Shah in the Parliament, on 9 December 2019. It was regarding the exclusion of 1.9 million people, predominantly Hindus and Muslims in Assam’s National Register of Citizens. CAA and NRC were initially introduced in Assam state only. It provided Indian citizenship to illegal migrants of 6 communities i.e. Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, and Jain. These were immigrants mostly from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The cut-off date for citizenship was December 31, 2014, meaning that applicant must have come to India on or before this date. The intruders are people “forced/ compelled to take shelter in India due to persecution on religious grounds” in native country.

Perspectives on CAA

Outrage began from the day when Parliamentary debate on CAB objections & criticism was started. Hundreds of scientists, scribes, actors, directors, singers and politicians continue to oppose the law. Celebrities have come forward in defense of protests that have spread across the country. Uri: The Surgical Strike actor Vicky Kaushal and Rajkummar Rao have also raised concerns over the future of the country. Priyanka Chopra, Konkana Sen Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Richa Chaddha have also openly voiced their concerns against CAA. Ayushmann Khurrana, who is known for his social-drama films, also came forward and appealed for peace.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “These exercises will be more disastrous than demonetization in November 2016”. He tweeted this, “Across India, many young men & women have been wounded & even killed while protesting against the CAA. I urge our Congress party workers to meet the victim’s families & provide them all possible assistance. On Saturday I met the families of 2 young martyrs in Assam”. he also shared a video of the same.

Chetan Bhagat tweeted, “CAA by itself is not the issue. But CAA+NRC are discriminatory. This could happen. NRC: All prove again u r Indian.”

Protests and Trauma

On 13 December 2019, the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University undertook a march to the Parliament protesting against the CAA. They were prevented from going ahead by the police using batons and tear gas leading to clashes with them. Fifty students were detained by the police after the clash. On the morning of 15 December 2019, more than two thousand students of Jamia joined the protests against CAA in Delhi. On 16 December 2019, two students of Jamia were admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with bullet injuries received during protests on 15 December. One of the victims, M. Tamin claimed not being a part of the protest and just passion by. He gave a statement that the Police started caning the protestors and he got shot as well.

These are the major incidents that took place during protests.

CAA : In the spirit of the Constitution or not?

“This CAA does not relate to any Indian, even Muslims. Neither does it create any citizenship to them nor takes it away”.

–Ravi Shankar Prasad , Law Minister

The CAA is perfectly legal and Constitutional. Article 246 of the Constitution, gives Parliament absolute power to make laws concerning any matter listed in 7^th schedule. In that list, item 17 is to do with citizenship and naturalization of aliens. Therefore, only Parliament has got sovereign powers to legislate on Citizenship. Article 14 says equality before law and equal protection before law. However, the Supreme Courtgave several judgments stating that reasonable classification of groups, forming a class, by themselves, validates the legislation. Here, the victimized group of six communities from the three Islamic countries, namely- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, form that reasonable classification.

On the other hand, this amendment is Unconstitutional as well. For it is a clear infringement of Article 16 which promotes equality in the matter of public employment. However, this Amendment makes Hindu, Parsi, Sikh, Bhuddhist, Jains and Christains eligible for government employment and residence after 5 years. But a Muslim has to wait for eleven years to get residence and government employment. Thus, this amendment is not uniformly applicable in the whole of India.

The biggest question or we can say the “myth” was that it will abolish citizenship of Indian Muslims. This was because it only allowed Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian foreigners to apply for citizenship. But it had absolutely nothing to do with any Indian citizen in any way. The Indian citizens enjoy fundamental rights conferred on them by the Constitution of India. No statute, including the CAA, can abridge or take them away.

CAA does not include Illegal migrants. They can be imprisoned or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920. These two Acts empower the central government to check the entry, exit and residence of foreigners in India.

Impacts of CAA

There are various Social impacts of the Act such as in terms of society, distribution of resources, etc. Politically contesting elections, voting rights and majority ideologies become central. Administratively in terms of rule making and policies regulating and governance. Ethnically and Culturally there will be impact on language, rituals, norms, heritages etc.lastly, Economic impacts on equal distribution of resources, employment, eradication of poverty etc. In this way we can say that CAA will be very impactful.

An Important fact was the areas regulated under ‘The Inner Line’ permit have been exempted. Manipur was also brought under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime.

Due to prolonged protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 led to 21 people getting injured in the violence. To avoid riots and violence the Supreme Court asked to publicize the real information pertaining to the Act. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde was set up in January, 2020. They decided to analyze and examine the constitutional validity of the CAA.

Apex Court’s stand- The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, despite the matter being uppermost in everybody’s mind. It stated that it first wanted to hear the Centre’s response to pleas challenging the law. The apex court also asked all high courts not to pass any order on CAA, on 22 January 2020.

EduMound

CAA : For or Against the spirit of Indian Constitution?