CAA LAW
CAA stands for Citizen Amendment Act. This law was added by BJP government in 2019 to provide citizenship to the migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who specifically belong to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi or Christian community. Additionally, only the migrants who entered India before or on 31st December 2014 are eligible to apply for the citizenship.
Table of Contents
Which religious groups can apply for citizenship under CAA?
Person who belongs to any one of the following minority communities can apply for citizenship:
1. Hindu
2. Sikh
3. Jain
4. Buddhist
5. Parsi
6. Christian
People from which country can apply for citizenship
Person must be national of any one of the following countries:
1. Pakistan
2. Afghanistan
3. Bangladesh
Following are the Provisions under which people can apply for Citizenship.
Government has added the seven provisions for the people who has migrated before the 31 December 2014 to apply for the citizenship.
1. A person of Indian Origin.
2. A person married to an Indian Citizen.
3. Minor child of Indian Parents.
4. A person whose parents are registered or naturalized as Citizens of India.
5. A person who himself or either of his/her parents was earlier citizen of Independent India.
6. A person who is registered as overseas Citizen of India Cardholder.
7. A person of full age and capacity residing in India continuously for twelve months before making application and for five years (in aggregate) during a period of fourteen years preceding the aforesaid period of twelve months before making applications.
How to apply for citizenship
The Indian government has launched both a web portal and a mobile application for the application process for citizenship. Immigrants can conveniently register themselves through the Indian Citizenship Online Portal or utilize the CAA – 2019 mobile app for the same purpose.
Pitfalls of the CAA
Is CAA discriminatory in nature?
One of the major pitfalls of the CAA is the hidden discrimination that is enlightened by the date mentioned i.e. 31 December 2014. The act states that the person who entered the country before or on this date can apply for citizenship. How can a date define someone’s eligibility to be a citizen of India? On what basis a person who entered India on 31 December 2014 can be more eligible than the one who entered on 1 January 2015? Will the Act be able to convince the people that they are not eligible? What do we expect them to do when terrified? With what logic do we expect them to act sane who are terrified?
Biasedness towards a few reveals discrimination against others. Discrimination becomes a major basis in the division of a society. If the Act was to benefit the minority, then why it’s considering only religious minorities? Is it because it wants us to be empathetic towards some specific religions? Or it is to arouse apathy towards the excluded? The classifications present in the Act don’t allow it to fall into an Act for the wellbeing of the people belonging to minorities. Rather when analysed critically it falls into the category of the Acts which can disturb peace within any society.
Is CAA inclusive?
Another major pitfall of the CAA is its inclusivity for some selected religions only. The act explicitly mentions that a person can apply for citizenship if he/she/they belong to any of the six religions which are Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi, and Christian. While mentioning these religions the Act alludes to the idea that the religious minorities of the said countries should be safeguarded. It seems to be a step towards the well-being of the migrants who migrated because they would have been facing trouble because of their religious identities. But if it was so, then why has the government excluded other religious minorities? To name a few are Jews, Bahais, and Atheists. Why the Act is seemingly biased towards some of the religions?
Will CAA generate fear in some sections?
The Act can cause chaos in our society by provoking fear in individuals. The fear will be generated not only in the migrants but also in the people who belong to the communities that are being discriminated against. The fear of the migrants who belong to the religions excluded in the Act will be seen and heard even if not acted upon. But the fear of the citizens of India who belong to the excluded religions will not even be considered and understood. Whenever we make a child of a family feel more protected, we threaten the other child of the family. We can deny our act to be threatening but one’s biased over-protection will always produce a threat in the other. The worst situation that this biasness will generate is that the fear is denied to be logical. But unfortunately, the fear doesn’t stop existing by the denial of the fear-producer.
A society can’t be peaceful until fear exists in any section of society because fear engenders not only self-protection but also a wish to generate fear for the over-protected. We all are aware of the law “Every action has an equally opposite reaction.” But to understand here is that this law isn’t limited to physics only rather it is present everywhere in our lives if we are open enough to see and accept it. If you are threatening someone then you should be ready to face the reactions of the threatened. If you are quiet when they are being threatened then you must be quiet when their voices will be loud enough to reach your ears and threaten your hearts.
The excluder cannot control the consequences of the exclusion. The exclusion can make the excluded unsaid enemies of the over-protected. This enmity reveals the other side of the fear caused by discrimination. It can be seen in the communities who are biased towards them because they may consider the people from excluded religions social threat. Neither the protected nor the discriminated will be able to save themselves from the constructed social threat. Only the times they experience it can differ. Maybe today you are feeling safe because you cannot see the flip side of your actions but soon that will be revealed and you will be on the other side.
Is CAA secular?
To ponder upon the secularism in the act let’s forget that the migrants have any religious identity for a while and see them only as human beings with a secular lens, which our Constitution provides us with by claiming our country to be secular. Then question yourself if we can find any other way to exclude those whom we are excluding. And if not, then why can’t we call this Act religiously biased?
One more question that isn’t departing from my mind is what about the atheists? Is there no place for an atheist in a secular country? Secularism can’t be about socially and morally obliging people to conform to any of the given religions. Rather secularism is about the freedom of choice whether you want to follow a religion or not and if you want to follow any then which one is it? Fortunately or unfortunately the freedom of choice also needs to be redefined. We need freedom of “choice without stigma” as proposed by Toni Morrison.
To ponder upon a different perspective let’s assume that the religious classification was necessary. But what could be the reason that led to the religious classification mentioned in the Act and where the religious classification leads us to? Religion, as said by Aldous Huxley, is “a luxury” and luxury is something that isn’t a necessity. Then why everyone is obliged to be registered under any of the given religions?
Religion can divide a society just like many other social vices for example caste, class, race, and gender. So, can this similarity lead us to the inference that religion is a social vice, and if not then are we mentally and morally free enough to ask for the qualities that differentiate it from those social vices? Religion is always based on either blind faith or fear. Faith for those who believe it and fear for those who are morally and socially obliged to believe in it.
Will CAA leads to fake conversions?
The social obligation of believing in any religion can be forced or natural. The forced religious obligation leads to conversion and sometimes to fake conversion. Fake conversion is when people convert themselves socially to a religion that they feel is on the safer side in the society they are living in but maintain their original religion in their private spaces because they believe in it. They convert not to be included in society but because of the fear they see being generated towards their original religion. The religious fear generated in a society can lead to fake conversions.
A secular and peaceful society cannot be achieved based on religious biases. It can only lead to a society full of threatened, terrified, frustrated, depressed, and hopeless people no matter who is getting benefits of the biasness. It can only lead to the crimes in a society. One day the axe you are not able to see today will be felt by you on your neck. None… not even a single individual can be spared from the ruinous effects of the discrimination that prevailed in their society.