The Union Home Ministry could notify the rules of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, before the enforcement of the model code of conduct that would be necessitated due to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sources told News18 on Tuesday.
This would mean that the law could come into effect as early as next month after the notification of the rules, with India preparing for a massive polling exercise to elect a new government. The model code of conduct, a set of guidelines issued by India’s Election Commission pertaining to the conduct of political parties and leaders, comes into effect with the announcement of the election schedule.
CAA fast-tracks citizenship of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis who have arrived in India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015.
It is widely anticipated that voting in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will take place sometime in April over several phases and continue till May. The schedule is expected to be released around mid-March, however, an official announcement is yet to be made.
In 2019, the dates for Lok Sabha elections were announced on March 10, and voting was held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19. Votes were counted on May 23.
Indian Parliament cleared the bill for the citizenship legislation in December 2019. Subsequently, protests broke out in several parts of the country, with some parties opposing the Centre’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party calling the legislation divisive. The government has debunked such narratives and called CAA a “law of the land” that would be implemented.
Speaking at a business summit earlier this month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the CAA rules will be implement before the Lok Sabha polls.
“Our Muslim brothers are being misled and instigated (against the CAA). The CAA is only meant to give citizenship to those who came to India after facing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is not for snatching anyone’s Indian citizenship,” he had said.
Last month, news agency PTI had cited sources in the government and said that rules for CAA will be notified “much before” the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections. The Bill for the law was cleared by the Parliament in December 2019.
“We are going to issue the rules for the CAA soon. Once the rules are issued, the law can be implemented and those eligible can be granted Indian citizenship,” the functionary was quoted as saying.
“The rules are ready and the online portal is also in place and the entire process will be online. The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No document will be sought from the applicants,” the functionary added.
WHAT IS CAA?
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019 and got the President’s assent the very next day, following which it was notified by the MHA.
It seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan entering India before December 31, 2014.
More than a hundred people lost their lives during the protests or police action after Parliament passed the law.
Meanwhile, in last two years, more than 30 district magistrates and home secretaries of nine states have been given powers to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan under the Citizenship Act of 1955.
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