Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11

December 201910 and can into effect on January 2020.

It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing a pathway to Indian citizenship for refugees
from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who
are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians, and arrived in India before the end of
December 2014.

The law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from those countries, all of which are Muslim-
majority countries. The act was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criterion for
citizenship under Indian law.

Under the 2019 amendment, migrants who had entered India by 31 December 2014, and had
suffered "religious persecution (Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an
individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religious beliefs or affiliations or
their lack thereof) or fear of religious persecution" in their country of origin, were made eligible for
citizenship.

 The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalisation of these migrants
from twelve years to six.

 According to Intelligence Bureau records, there will be just over 30,000 immediate beneficiaries
of the bill.

The amendment has been criticised as discriminating on the basis of religion, particularly for
excluding Muslims.

 The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called it
"fundamentally discriminatory", adding that while India's "goal of protecting persecuted groups is
welcome", this should be accomplished through a non-discriminatory "robust
national asylum system"

Issues of concerns

The Exemption section in the Amendment of the Act[105] does not give attention to the refugees
from all the neighboring countries. Of all the countries in the
border China, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan (in the North or North-West),
and Bangladesh and Myanmar (in the East) and Sri Lanka (in the South), this Act mentions
Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan only, that is the Muslim majority countries in the border
only are being addressed by design in the Act.

Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are not offered eligibility for citizenship
under the new Act.[5][6][112] Critics have questioned the exclusion. The amendment limits itself to the
Muslim-majority neighbours of India and takes no cognisance of the persecuted Muslims of those
countries

The Act does not include migrants from non-Muslim countries fleeing persecution to India,
Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar, Hindu refugees from Sri Lanka, and Buddhist
refugees from Tibet, China.
The Act does not mention Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Tamils were allowed to
settle as refugees in Tamil Nadu in 1980s and 1990s due to systemic violence from the
Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. They include 29,500 "hill country Tamils" (Malaiha).[67][115]
In this context, there are concerns that the present amendment of the Citizenship Act provides a
"shield" to the non-Muslims, who can claim that they were migrants who fled persecution from
Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh, while the Muslims do not have such a benefit.[120][121][122]
[123]
 Such a claim may be possible only for people in the border states who have some ethnic
resemblance to the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh, but not to the people of
interior states

Critics express concerns that the bill would be used, along with the National Register of
Citizens (NRC), to render many Muslim citizens stateless, as they may be unable to meet
stringent birth or identity proof requirements.

Commentators also question the exclusion of persecuted religious minorities from other regions
such as Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

 The Indian government said that since Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have Islam as
their state religion, it is therefore "unlikely" that Muslims would "face religious persecution" there.

However, certain Muslim groups, such as Hazaras, have historically faced persecution in these
countries.

Assam and other northeastern states witnessed violent demonstrations against the bill over fears
that granting Indian citizenship to refugees and immigrants will cause a loss of their "political
rights, culture and land rights" and motivate further migration from Bangladesh.

 In other parts of India, protesters said that the bill discriminated against Muslims, and demanded
that Indian citizenship be granted to Muslim refugees and immigrants as well.