An illegal migrant is defined as people either who entered the country without the proper documents, or stayed on beyond the permitted time. As per the Citizenship Act of 1955, an illegal immigrant cannot get citizenship in India.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 passed by Lok Sabha on Monday, proposes to accord citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It, naturally, implies that migrants, who are from any other community, from these countries won’t be eligible for citizenship. The bill also relaxes the provisions for “Citizenship by naturalisation”. The proposed law also reduces duration of residency from existing 11 years to just five years for people belonging to the same six religions and three countries.
Many of us must be thinking that ;
Why was it necessary for the Govt to bring this amendment.
Is it that BJP is only interested in political gains and fulfill one of its poll promises.
Will the SC over rule this law?
Is it against the basic principle of Constitution i.e. Equality.
Is it against the Muslims.
The answers to these questions are very essential to understand before we all form an opinion.
Author. Col N Bhatnagar is an alumnus of NDA, Prestigious Def Services Staff College and XLRI. He served in Indian army as an Infantry Officer in all parts of the country and also in Srilanka and has also worked with Reputed Companies - Power, Hospitality and Health Care sector . He has also worked as a National Assesssor of CII for its CII-EXIM Bank Award and HR Excellence award. He has also authored Three Books.
Disclaimer. The views expressed are of Author.