O.N Koul
The citizenship amendment act is a revolutionary piece of legislation and is most required one so for as the plight of the refugees is concerned .The refugees are a discriminated lot and a persecuted one. The fact is that they were persecuted in the countries of their origin and they took refuge in India but in the free India they were also discriminated and were denied justices and were mal-treated in the largest democracy of the world. For the last 70 years these unfortunate people were discriminated against and deprived of the basic rights by the successive Congress Governments thanks to the pseudo -secular politics and appeasement policies of the Congress Government.
On the one side these hapless ones were persecuted in their countries and on the other they stand discriminated in the democratic republic of India. The NDA Government headed by the BJP has decided to come to the rescue of these non-Muslim refugees as it was an item in the manifesto of the BJP. Thus now Amit Shah piloted a significant and a revolutionary bill to amend the citizenship bill to provide for giving citizenship to these persecuted people.The significant bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha with 125 votes in favour of the bill and 105 votes against it .While piloting this controversial but revolutionary bill, Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the division of the country on the basis of religion has forced me to bring this bill to provide citizenship to the persecuted non-muslim refugees who were persecuted in their countries and thus fled to India to save themselves from persecution and harassment .
The non-muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan would be eligible for the citizenship by virtue of this amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955.Thus the refugees belonging to Hindu, Sikhs, Jain, Buddhist, Christain and Parseis are entitled to the citizenship rights as per this bill.The citizenship bill has been passed in the upper house also and this is a big development for theBJPs political fortunes as in spite of the lack of the arithmetic in Raj sabha, the BJP got the bill passed in the upper house as well and this is a political victory for the BJP. The bill has been opposed by the congress and other so called secular parties and they call this amendment bill to citizenship as unconstitutional and against the secular fabric and plural ethos of the country.
The fact is that the CAA is not against any community and not against the Muslims as their citizenship will not be impacted by the proposed bill but the congress and left parties are opposing the CAA for their vote bank. The amendment bill to citizenship is not against the basic structure of the constitution nor is it against the very idea of India as alleged by congress leader P. Chidambaram.
The CAA is in accordance with human values and humanity and is not based on religion and therefore Chidambaram’s criticism is untenable and has no logic. The home minister Amit Shah has rightly said while piloting the bill that the muslims have nothing to fear from the legislation while the opposition parties said that the bill hits the soul of the country.CAA has amended the 1955 citizenship act by by bestowing citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians ,Parsis and Jains who entered into India from Palistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31st 2014.
This is a historical piece of legislation aimed to ameliorate the fortunes of the persecuted refugees and to give succor to them .The bill after implementation will make the non-muslim refugees partners in the race of development and therefore is a progressive legislation and the criticism of the opposition has no basis at all and is the opposition for the sake of opposition .Further the CAA is not against the idea of India but is in accordance with the idea of India .It is in consonance with the composite culture of the country .The bill in question is in accordance with the principle of unity in diversity which is the distinguishing feature of the Indian culture .Chidambaram said that the bill will be striked down by the judiciary and the congress has approached the supreme court and prayed for striking down of the bill as according to congress the bill is an assault on the secular character of the country.
In fact the bill is not based on religion but is based on humanity and aims at helping those who have been persecuted in their countries and in India have been discriminated by the successive regimes of the congress for the vote bank politics and BJP is trying to correct the historical wrong and it is hoped that the bill after becoming an act will wipe the tears from the eyes of the refugees.
The bill is in no way against the Muslims and their citizenship rights will not be affected by the bill and the Muslims should not entertain any doubt about it .One fails to understand that how the bill hurts the soul of India and how with giving the citizenship rights to non -muslims refuges the soul of India is affected .The CAA infact helps to cement the secularism and will help the persecuted and discriminated ones to have the benefits of citizenship and helps in their full assimilation with our cultural ethos and polity. Anyway the CAA is a revolutionary and progressive piece of legislation passed by the parliament.
(The writer is a retired education
officer and columnist)
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