With the code of conduct for upcoming Lok Sabha elections yet to be effective, the Union Home Ministry notified the Citizenship Amendment Act’s (CAA) rules today.
This move in haste comes weeks after union home minister Amit Shah declared that the law would be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.
The Citizenship Amendment Act was approved by Parliament on December 11, 2019. Even though the parliamentary guidelines state that the terms of an act must be published within six months of the legislation coming into force, it has not happened in the case of CAA till now, even after three years.
The Citizenship Amendment Act offers to provide citizenship to immigrants from six minority religious communities “except Muslims” from selected neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014.
The criterion behind the selection of these countries and the eviction Muslims from the scope of the legislation was widely criticised since the beginning. Moreover, there were massive protests across the country after the amendment was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and received the presidential assent subsequently.
Due to the functional failure of Assam NRC and the unprecedented magnitude of resistance from the masses, the BJP government was forced to stay on back foot.
At present, the suddenly developed haste in publishing the rules has drawn severe distaste from both the critics and the opposition leaders.
Soon after a government functionary stated that rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 will be notified “much before” the announcement of Lok Sabha elections, many have termed the move an election gimmick to consolidate votes.
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