Citizenship Amendment Act Comes into Effect amid Nationwide Agitation

New Delhi, January 11, 2020:

Amid widespread agitations across the country, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) officially came into effect on Friday.

An official notification issued by the Home Ministry stated that the act, under which non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be provided Indian citizenship, will come into effect from January 10.

The notification said, “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of the section 1 of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (47 of 2019), the Central government hereby appoints the 10th day of January, 2020, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force.”

It may be mentioned here that massive protests erupted across the country after the CAB’s (Citizenship Amendment Bill) passage in the Rajya Sabha and forced implementation of the CAA. Several deaths were reported from different parts of the country. Internet shutdowns became prominent to quell the protests. Curfews were also imposed.

Widespread agitation is still on demanding repealing of the CAA. In Assam, several organisations, students and learned have been continuing their protest against the CAA as it poses threat to its linguistic and cultural identity.

While Assam fights for its identity, the rest of the country is fighting against CAA based on the ‘unconstitutional’ and discriminatory nature. Opposition and critics opine that the exclusion of Muslims have made CAA unconstitutional. Some others view it as CAA, along with other citizenship exercises such as the nationwide National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) and National Population Register (NPR), clubbed together would facilitate expulsion of Muslims from the country.

Around 100 bureaucrats had also written an open letter to the people of India to urge the Government to reconsider the implementation and called it “unnecessary” exercise.

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