The Union Government on Monday, notified rules for the Act to expedite citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who came to India before December 31, 2014, reported Indian Express.
In a bid to dispel fears and speculations on its “discriminating” nature, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday clarified that Indian Muslims need not worry as the Act will not impact their citizenship.
In its statement, the Home Ministry said, “Due to the persecution of minorities in those three Muslim countries, the name of Islam was badly tarnished all around the world. However, Islam, being a peaceful religion, never preaches or suggests hatred/violence/any persecution on religious ground.”
This Act “protects Islam from being tarnished in the name of persecution,” it added.
The ministry also stated that the Citizenship Act does not deal with deportation of illegal immigrants. Hence the concern of a section of people, including Muslims and students, that CAA is against Muslim minorities is “unjustifiable”.
“Indian Muslims need not worry as CAA has not made any provision to impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the present 18 crore Indian Muslims, who have equal rights like their Hindu counterparts,” the Ministry said in a statement, where it has answered a number of questions to bust any kind of myth that people might have.
The Ministry pointed out that there is no bar on Muslims from anywhere in the world to seek Indian citizenship under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, which deals with citizenship by naturalisation.
“Without curtailing the freedom and opportunity of Indian Muslims to enjoy their rights as they have been usually practising and entertaining since Independence like other Indian citizens belonging to other religions, CAA 2019 has reduced the qualification period of application for citizenship from 11 to 5 years for the beneficiaries who had been persecuted on religious grounds in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan and who had entered India on or before December 31, 2014 with an aim to show a generous treatment to them,” it said.
“To show mercy on the persecuted minorities of those three countries, this Act gives opportunity to them as per the evergreen generous culture of India to get Indian citizenship for their happy and prosperous future. To customise the citizenship system and control the illegal migrants, there was a need of this Act,” the Ministry explained.
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