CAA Likely To Be Enforced From Next Month; Online Portal Ready

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which will provide Indian Citizenship to religious minorities except Muslims from three neighbouring countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, likely to be implemented from next month, NDTV reported citing sources. The Union Home Ministry has finished the dry runs for the registrations. The official process and the online portal is prepared for the registration.

Refugees from these three neighbouring countries who do not have documents will be given Indian citizenship. According to the news outlet, the most number of the applications for long-term visas came from Pakistan and the home ministry has already given the power to grant long-term visas to the district authorities.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier this month told that the CAA will be implemented before the Lok Sabha election. As per reprots, the central government may most probably issue rules for the CAA before the issuance of Model Code of Conduct for the general election.

The move had met with strong opposition from the Muslims of the country as the law excludes only Muslims from providing Indian citizenship. The bill was passed in 2019, triggering waves of protest across the nation, that caused several deaths, destructions and riots. Closely noting the discriminatory provision in the CAA, the Muslims of India fear that even though they have documents proving their citizenship, they can be still left out of the National Citizenship Register (NRC).

The Muslims who already feel sidelined in the country believe that the option to scrutinise their citizenship while providing easy entry to people from six other religions would probably endanger their existence and strip them of their citizenship.

The Union Home Minister while speaking about the implementation of the CAA this month said that Muslims are misled and instigated against the CAA. He also assured that the law will not snatch citizenship from anyone, saying that it is only meant to provide citizenship. However, the constitutional righteousness and the discriminatory aspect of the CAA are still debated in the country.