Image Courtesy: ndtv.com
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has now been notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Gazette for its enforcement date. The notification reads, “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of the section 1 of the Citizenship Amendment Act,2019, the Central Government hereby appoints the 10th day of January, 2020 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force.”
This means that the most controversial law of recent times which has seen an unprecedented mass uprising has been enforced and has officially become a law of the land in operation. The state machinery will get to work, the executive will be set in motion to start implementing the law.
The Citizenship Amendment law enables grant of citizenship to people belonging to Hindu, Parsi, Jain, Buddhist and Christian community from Pakistan Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The reason attributed to this is that they are religiously persecuted communities, although this term does not find a mention in the law and thus does not require one to prove that they have been persecuted in their countries of origin.
The major bone of contention among the people protesting against this law is that it discriminates against the Muslim community which will adversely affect the future of Muslims and the marginalized in India as it is set to get combined with the lethal combination of National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The Union Home Minister, Amit Shah is known to have said at a recent occasion that his government will not move back even an inch on implementing CAA and this gazette notification is testimony to the fact that the government is unfazed by the rising tension and agitation among its masses and shows its indifference towards its electorate.
The gazette notification may be read here:
Related: