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Lok Sabha Background Guide Version 1 – 21/10/2019

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Table of Contents

Letter from the Executive Board 3

About the Lok Sabha 5

Chapter 1: Introduction 7

(a) Understanding Citizenship in Indian Context 7

(b) Historic Overview of Citizenship Notion 8

Chapter 2: Citizenship and Legal Framework 12

Constitutional Provision for Citizenship 12

(c) Citizenship Act, 1955 and Amendments 14

Chapter 3: Issues with Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 19

Chapter 4: Conclusion 22

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Letter from the Executive Board

Greetings!

With immense pleasure to serve as your Executive Board, we welcome you to the simulation of the

Lok Sabha, held at The Scindia School Model United Nations 2019. Our committee shall discuss a

dynamic agenda:

Discussing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The major aim of this document is to serve as a course of your understanding and further

researches, but it is not restricting creation of new horizons and expanding the scope of the

debate. This agenda seeks theoretical as well as logical attention and we request you to sincerely

read the document so that all portfolio-holders at least have a common ground of understanding.

Further we request you all not to treat this guide as a source of citations in the committee as the

guide is a mixture of arguments and facts at times constructed to ease up the understanding.

The dynamics of the Indian Politics have been into play recently with breakthrough of the

Citizenship Amendment Bill from the Lok Sabha however it has lapsed with the dissolution of the

16th Lok Sabha but it has created an environment of serious responses on the end of the

Northeast States which fear the loss of cultural uniqueness.

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 brings around the government plans to change the definition

of illegal migrants. The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to amend the

Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and

Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction. However, the Act

doesn’t have a provision for Muslim sects like Shias and Ahmadiyya who also face persecution in

Pakistan.

The NRC, also known as the Assam citizens' list, seeks to segregate Indian citizens living in the state

from those who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh and other countries after March

25, 1971. The NRC was first published in Assam in 1951.

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The BJP had promised to grant citizenship to Hindus persecuted in the neighbouring countries

during the 2014 General Election. In the party's election manifesto, the BJP had promised to

welcome Hindu refugees and give shelter to them.

We request you to kindly take a look over various aspects of near related terminology considering

that with minute differences there are possibilities that the meanings of certain arguments may

change.

We duly understand the agenda might seem a bit tricky and for this purpose, feel free to contact us

via emails with respect to your doubts. Just remember one thing, searching only over Google won't

fetch you good material, you have to put in your reasoning efforts.

Happy researching!

Regards,

Shivam Gupta

Speaker

(Email ID: 3guptashivam@gmail.com)

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About the Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha is composed of representatives of the people chosen by direct election on the basis of

the adult suffrage. The maximum strength of the House envisaged by the Constitution is 552, which

is made up by election of up to 530 members to represent the States, up to 20 members to

represent the Union Territories and not more than two members of the Anglo-Indian Community

to be nominated by the Hon'ble President, if, in his/her opinion, that community is not adequately

represented in the House. The total elective membership is distributed among the States in such a

way that the ratio between the number of seats allotted to each State and the population of the

State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States.1

The president of India, who is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of all

elected members of parliament and of the state legislatures, is more a constitutional sovereign

than a chief executive. The real power resides in the prime minister, who heads the Council of

Ministers—ministers who are members of the cabinet and other ministers of state and deputy

ministers. The council is responsible to the Lok Sabha. The upper chamber of parliament is the

Rajya Sabha (“Council of States”).2

Unless sooner dissolved by the President, the Lok Sabha continues for five years from the date

appointed for its first meeting and no longer, as the expiration of the period of five years operates

as a dissolution of the House. However, while a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation, this

period may be extended by Parliament by law for a period not exceeding one year at a time and

not exceeding in any case beyond a period of six months after the Proclamation has ceased to

operate.

The Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha provide that at the commencement of

the House or from time to time, as the case may be, the Speaker shall nominate from amongst the

Members a Panel of not more than ten Chairpersons, any one of whom may preside over the

House in the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker when so requested by the Speaker

or, in the absence of the Speaker, by the Deputy Speaker. A Chairperson so nominated, holds

1 https://loksabha.nic.in 2 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pranab-Mukherjee

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office until a new Panel of Chairpersons is nominated, unless he/she resigns earlier from the Panel

or is appointed a Minister or elected as Deputy Speaker.3

Link to Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha:

http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/rules/RULES-2010-P-FINAL_1.pdf

3 http://loksabhaph.nic.in/FAQ.aspx

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Chapter 1: Introduction

The following topic (INTRODUCTION) consists of these sub-issues:

(a) Understanding Citizenship in Indian Context

(b) Historic Overview of Citizenship Notion

(a) UNDERSTANDING CITIZENSHIP IN INDIAN CONTEXT

The concept of citizenship is composed of three main elements or dimensions. The first is

citizenship as legal status, defined by civil, political and social rights. Here, the citizen is the legal

person free to act according to the law and having the right to claim the law’s protection. It need

not mean that the citizen takes part in the law’s formulation, nor does it require that rights be

uniform between citizens. The second considers citizens specifically as political agents, actively

participating in a society’s political institutions. The third refers to citizenship as membership in a

political community that furnishes a distinct source of identity.4

The Indian Constitution defines citizenship in Part II (Articles 5-11). While drafting this section, the

Constituent Assembly sought to figure out who would, as of 1950, have a right to Indian nationality

and citizenship. The absence of racial distinctiveness as a necessary condition for citizenship was

explained by a crucial exchange in the Constituent Assembly Debates (CAD). Citizenship proved to

be amongst the most disputed issues, debated for almost two years and with more than 120

amendments moved during the sittings of the Constituent Assembly. This trend carried on both in

further policy initiatives and its interpretations. The Constitution of India extends Indian Citizenship

to those born on Indian Soil, or to India Parents (Article 5). While legal entitlement of citizenship is

undoubtedly an important constituent of citizenship, the burden of proof - of citizenship - lies with

the individuals themselves.

Just as the legal right to citizenship is accorded by the state, identity, and following from it, the

moral right to belong, is what people give to their claims to citizenship. When both converge in the

same group, the result is a sense of legitimate citizenship, where the individual feels both legally

entitled and morally engaged. If not, the consequences are either legal citizenship devoid of a

4 Cohen 1999; Kymlicka and Norman 2000; Carens 2000, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/citizenship/

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sense of identification with the soil, or a primordial identification with the land but no legal

sanction of this. One may be legally entitled to citizenship but not be aware of it; be aware of it but

not feel in possession of the rights and capacities that make citizenship meaningful (nationality

without citizenship) or one might be disaffected and reject the legal rights of citizenship, driven by

some innate force - loyalty to a different authority than the national state, or by another sentiments

(rebels).

The Indian record of successfully turning subjects into citizens has cross-border significance

because rather than being a unique attribute of Indian Culture, it is based on an Institutional

arrangement containing several important parameters. First of these are the aforementioned

Articles 5-11 of the Indian Constitution, the CAD (which provides insights into controversies

surrounding the specific articles, and legislation undertaken by the national Parliament to enable

and amend, depending on the case, the original provisions of the Constitution. “Judicialization” of

citizenship is yet another method of synchronising the provisions of the law and the new demands

emerging from society. India’s relative success on the issue of citizenship can be attributed to the

fact that these tools citizen-making are used with unusual vigour and imagination by the political

decision-makers in India. 5

(b) HISTORIC OVERVIEW OF CITIZENSHIP NOTION

On 11 August 1949, the Constituent Assembly was neck deep in drafting the Indian Constitution’s

citizenship provisions. P.S. Deshmukh moved an amendment proposing ‘that every person who is a

Hindu or a Sikh and is not a citizen of any other State shall be entitled to be a citizen of India’. If

Pakistan was created as a home for Muslims, he argued, there was no reason why India could not

be understood as a home for Hindus and Sikhs.

Deshmukh was part a group of members in the Assembly who felt that the citizenship provisions of

the Draft Constitution and the amendments moved by B.R. Ambedkar in the Assembly, amounted

to appeasement. They suggested the Drafting Committee was going out of its way to make it less

5 MITRA, SUBRATA. “Citizenship in India: Some Preliminary Results of a National Survey.” Economic

and Political Weekly, vol. 45, no. 9, 2010, pp. 46–53. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25664170

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hard for Muslims – those who migrated to India from Pakistan and those who migrated to Pakistan

and came back – to obtain Indian citizenship. Nehru came to the defence of the Draft Constitution

and Ambedkar’s amendments. He insisted that citizenship should not be hyphenated with religion

in any way - ‘you cannot in any such provision lay down more or less whom you like and whom you

dislike; you have to lay down certain principles…you cannot have rules for Hindus, Muslims, or

Christians only…’.

Nehru also addressed the ‘appeasement’ charge - Do the honourable Members who talk of

appeasement think that some kind of rule should be applied when dealing with these people

[potential candidates for citizenship] which has nothing to do with justice or equity? I want a clear

answer to that. If so, I would only plead for appeasement.6

In the Constituent Assembly, members deliberated on what conception of citizenship the new

Indian State would adopt—’jus soli’ (citizenship by right of birth within the territory of the state) or

‘jus sanguins’ (citizenship by right of descent based on ethnicity or other communal markers). After

much deliberation, the Founding Fathers adopted the ‘jus soli’ approach, which according to Sardar

Patel, carried a more “enlightened modern civilised” character and that all progressive nations were

taking this route.

Moreover, they argued that ethnicity-based citizenship was outdated, and could foment communal

divisions in the country. Before delving further into the Constituent Assembly debates, it’s

imperative to outline what Dr BR Ambedkar said about the direction members should take while

discussing citizenship provisions. “Now, Sir, this article refers to, citizenship not in any general

sense but to citizenship on the date of the commencement of this Constitution. It is not the object

of this particular article to lay down a permanent law of citizenship for this country. The business of

laying down a permanent law of citizenship has been left to Parliament,” said the Chairman of the

Drafting Committee on August 10, 1949.

Throughout the debate on Article 5-11 (citizenship) of the Constitution, which for the best part

were discussed on 10, 11 and 12 August 1949, the ghost of Partition kept returning. For example,

6 https://www.constitutionofindia.net/blogs/who_is_an_indian_citizen___1__the_constituent_assembly_refuse

d_to_hyphenate_religion_and_citizenship_

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PC Deshmukh passed an amendment stating “every person who is a Hindu or a Sikh and is not a

citizen of any other State shall be entitled to be a citizen of India.” The rationale behind this

amendment is reminiscent of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016. “By the mere fact that he is a

Hindu or a Sikh, he should get Indian citizenship because it is this one circumstance that makes

him disliked by others.

We are not debarring others from getting citizenship here. We merely say that we have no other

country to look to for acquiring citizenship rights and therefore we the Hindus and the Sikhs, so

long as we follow the respective religions, should have the right of citizenship in India and should

be entitled to retain such citizenship so long as we acquire no other,” he said on August 11, 1949.

Thakur Das Bhargava, a member elected from East Punjab, argued for an extension in the number

of years it must take for people to acquire citizenship through the naturalisation process from five

to ten years.

Here, the emphasis is on where a citizen’s loyalties lie, particularly in the context of Partition. More

specifically, Muslims who left at the time of Partition, but want to come back. Thus, the demand for

a longer requirement of ten years of residency in India. However, all their amendments were

rejected either by members withdrawing it or losing it via a vote, and the Constituent Assembly

adopted the ‘jus soli’ principle for Article 5. While our framers were careful not to establish markers

of religious difference when discussing citizenship, those elements did rear their head while

framing what eventually became Article 6 & 7.

These articles introduced qualifying provisions to help manage the enormous population that had

migrated from Pakistan as a consequence of Partition. Article 6 conferred citizenship to those who

migrated to India before July 19, 1948 (i.e. more than one year after Partition). While those who

came after this deadline would need to register themselves with an officer appointed by the

government for a permit for resettlement or permanent return. However, one can only register

themselves after they have resided in the territory of India for six months. Besides certain logistical

considerations, this was an uncontroversial clause, since it pertained to those refugees [Hindus]

who had fled communal violence.

However, one cannot say the same of what eventually became Article 7, which dealt with

citizenship for those [Muslims] who had fled India to Pakistan but returned to India under a permit

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issued by an official appointed by the government. This was clearly the most contested article on

the subject of citizenship. Those opposing this article called it “the obnoxious clause”. As per the

draft article proposed by Ambedkar, those who migrated from India to Pakistan after March 1,

1947, lost the rights to be citizens of India.

An exception was made for persons who returned to India with a permit for resettlement or

permanent return issued by government authorities. Many members opposed this exception.

“Those in favour of more restrictive provisions claimed that Indian citizenship was being sold too

cheaply: that those who had migrated had done so deliberately and intentionally and that their

desire to return was definitely suspect,” writes scholar Niraja Gopal Jayal in her seminal work

Citizenship and its Discontents.7

7 https://www.thebetterindia.com/170708/republic-day-india-citizenship-rights-roles-definition/

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Chapter 2: Citizenship and Legal Framework

The following topic (CITIZENSHIP AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK) consists of these sub-issues:

(a) Constitutional Provision for Citizenship

(b) Citizenship Act, 1955 and Amendments

a) Constitutional Provision for Citizenship

The Constitution does not lay down a permanent or comprehensive provision relating to

citizenship in India. Articles 5 to 11 under Part II of the Constitution simply describes classes of

persons who would be deemed to be the citizen of India at the time of commencement of the

Constitution that is on 26th January, 1950 and leaves the entire law of the citizenship to be

regulated by law made by Parliament.

ARTICLE 5: CITIZENSHIP AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION

At the commencement of this Constitution, every person who has his domicile in the

territory of India and –

(a) who was born in the territory of India; or

(b) either of whose parents was born in the territory of India; or

(c) who has been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than five years

immediately preceding such commencement, shall be a citizen of India.

ARTICLE 6: RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN PERSONS WHO HAVE MIGRATED

TO INDIA FROM PAKISTAN

Notwithstanding anything in article 5, a person who has migrated to the territory of India

from the territory now included in Pakistan shall be deemed to be a citizen of India at the

commencement of this Constitution if –

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(a) he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents was born in India as defined in

the Government of India Act, 1935 (as originally enacted); and

(b) (i) in the case where such person has so migrated before the nineteenth day of July,

1948, he has been ordinarily resident in the territory of India since the date of his

migration, or

(ii) in the case where such person has so migrated on or after the nineteenth day of

July, 1948, he has been registered as a citizen of India by an officer appointed in that

behalf by the Government of the Dominion of India on an application made by him

therefor to such officer before the commencement of this Constitution in the form

and manner prescribed by that Government: Provided that no person shall be so

registered unless he has been resident in the territory of India for at least six months

immediately preceding the date of his application.

ARTICLE 7: RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN MIGRANTS TO PAKISTAN

Notwithstanding anything in articles 5 and 6, a person who has after the first day of March,

1947, migrated from the territory of India to the territory now included in Pakistan shall not

be deemed to be a citizen of India:

Provided that nothing in this article shall apply to a person who, after having so migrated to

the territory now included in Pakistan, has returned to the territory of India under a permit

for resettlement or permanent return issued by or under the authority of any law and every

such person shall for the purposes of clause (b) of article 6 be deemed to have migrated to

the territory of India after the nineteenth day of July, 1948.

ARTICLE 8: RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP OF CERTAIN PERSONS OF INDIAN ORIGIN

RESIDING OUTSIDE INDIA

Notwithstanding anything in article 5, any person who or either of whose parents or any of

whose grand-parents was born in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 (as

originally enacted), and who is ordinarily residing in any country outside India as so defined

shall be deemed to be a citizen of India if he has been registered as a citizen of India by the

diplomatic or consular representative of India in the country where he is for the time being

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residing on an application made by him therefor to such diplomatic or consular

representative, whether before or after the commencement of this Constitution, in the form

and manner prescribed by the Government of the Dominion of India or the Government of

India.

ARTICLE 9: PERSONS VOLUNTARILY ACQUIRING CITIZENSHIP OF A FOREIGN

STATE NOT TO BE CITIZENS

No person shall be a citizen of India by virtue of article 5, or be deemed to be a citizen of

India by virtue of article 6 or article 8, if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any

foreign State.

ARTICLE 10: CONTINUANCE OF THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP

Every person who is or is deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the foregoing

provisions of this Part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by

Parliament, continue to be such citizen.

ARTICLE 11: PARLIAMENT TO REGULATE THE RIGHT OF CITIZENSHIP BY LAW

Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of

Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of

citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.

b) Citizenship Act, 1955 and Amendments

A comprehensive law dealing with citizenship was passed by Parliament in 1955 in accordance with

the powers vested in it by Article 11 of the Constitution. The provisions of the Act may be broadly

divided into three parts, acquisition of citizenship, termination of citizenship and supplemental

provisions. The Act provides five modes of acquiring the citizenship of India. These are:

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(1) By Birth: Every person born in India on or after January 26, 1950, shall be a citizen of India by

birth. There are two exceptions, however to this rule, namely, children born to foreign

diplomatic personnel in India and those of enemy aliens whose birth occurs in a place then

under occupation by the enemy.

(2) By Descent: A person born outside India on or after January 26, 1950, shall be citizen of India by

descent if his father or mother is a citizen of India at the time of his birth. Children of those who

are citizens of India by descent, as also children of non-citizens who are in service under a

government in India, may also take advantage of this provision and become Indian citizens by

descent, if they so desire, through registration.

(3) By Registration: Any person who is not already an Indian citizen by virtue of the provisions of

the Constitution or those of this Act can acquire citizenship by registration if that person

belongs to any one of the following five categories:

- Persons of Indian origin who are ordinarily resident in India and who have been so resident

for at least six months immediately before making an application for registration;

- Persons of Indian origin who are ordinarily resident in any country or place outside undi-

vided India;

- Women who are, or have been, married to citizens of India;

- Minor children of persons who are citizens of India; and

- Persons of full age and capacity who are citizen of the Commonwealth countries or the

Republic of Ireland.

(4) By Naturalisation: Any person who does not come under any of the categories mentioned

above can acquire Indian citizenship by naturalisation if his application for the same has been

acceded to by the Government of India and certificate is granted to him to that effect. An

applicant for a naturalisation certificate has to satisfy the following conditions:

- He is not a citizen of a country which prohibits Indians becoming citizens of that country by

naturalisation.

- He has renounced the citizenship of the country to which he belonged.

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- He has either resided in India or has been in the service of a government in India, normally,

for one year immediately prior to the date of application.

- During the seven years preceding the above mentioned one year, he has resided in India or

been in the service of a government in India for a period amounting in the aggregate to not

less than four years.

- He is of good character.

- He has an adequate knowledge of a language specified in the Constitution.

- If granted a certificate, he intends to reside in India or enter into, or continue in service

under a government in India.

The Act provides, however, for a conspicuous exemption under which any or all of the above

conditions may be waived in favour of a person who has rendered distinguished service to the

cause of science, philosophy, art, literature, world peace or human progress generally.

Every person to whom a certificate of naturalisation is granted has to take an oath of allegiance

solemnly affirming that he will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law

established, and that he will faithfully observe the laws of India and fulfil his duties as a citizen of

India.

(5) By Incorporation of Territory: If any territory becomes part of India, the Government of India, by

order, may specify the persons who shall be citizens of India by reason of their connection with

that territory.8

Citizenship Act of 1955 deals with acquisition and termination of citizenship after the

commencement of Constitution. The provisions under it include:

- A person born in India after 26th January 1950 would be citizen of India except those of children

of diplomats and enemy aliens cannot be citizens of India by birth

8 http://www.preservearticles.com/notes/useful-notes-on-the-citizenship-act-1955/14877

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- Any person born after 26th January 1950 would be citizen of India subject to certain

requirements, for example either parent (mother or father) to be a citizen of India

- Certain categories of citizens can acquire citizenship by registration in the prescribed manner

- Foreigners could acquire Indian citizenship by naturalisation on certain conditions

- If any territory becomes part of India, Government of India could specify the conditions for them

becoming citizens:

Citizenship could be lost by termination, renunciation, deprivation on certain grounds

Citizen of a Commonwealth country would have status of a Commonwealth citizen in India

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 1986 : This act specifically deals with the citizenship of

the state of Assam. It mentions that illegal migrants to get citizenship need to be registered with

Indian consulate in prescribed format.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 1992 : According to this Act any person born outside

India is considered as citizen of India by virtue of Citizenship by Descent if either of the parents was

citizen at the time of his birth.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2003 : This Act introduces several provisions for

overseas citizens regarding their registration, rights in India etc.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2005 : This Act is based on the recommendations of

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs. It provides for dual citizenship to PIO’s of 16

countries.

Loss of Citizenship

The Citizenship Act of 1955 deals with loss of citizenship also in addition to acquisition.

Accordingly, it is carried by the following means:

1. By renunciation: Any person who has made declaration stating his willingness to renounce

the citizenship shall cease to be the citizen of India.

2. By termination: If a person voluntarily or knowingly becomes citizen of any foreign country.

3. By deprivation.

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Overseas Citizen of India

According to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2003, overseas citizen of India includes a person:

• Of Indian origin being a citizen of a specified country, and

• Was citizen of India immediately becoming citizen of other country and registered as OCI by the

central government.

Non-Resident Indian

An NRI is a citizen of India who holds Indian passport and has temporarily immigrated to other

country either for employment or education or any other purpose.

Persons of Indian Origin

A PIO is a person of India origin whose parents or grandparents are citizens of India but he is not

citizen of India but of other country. The issue of citizenship plays a vital role in a democratic nation

state and hence citizenship is a significant principle of a democratic polity.9

9 https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/citizenship-1434782934-1

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Chapter 3: Issues with Citizenship (Amendment) Bill

On September 18, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that the National Register of Citizens

(NRC) would be implemented across the country as the 2019 mandate for the Bhartiya Janata

Party-National Democratic Alliance (BJP-NDA) indicated that there was all-round approval for the

same. This notwithstanding the various questions connected with the publication of the final NRC

list with respect to Assam, which had excluded some 1,906, 857 persons, the majority of them from

the majority community.

Amit Shah stated emphatically that it was not the National Register of Assam but the National

Register of Citizens, implying that there was a pan India connotation to the concept. Connected to

this and, more interestingly, 10 days before this declaration, while addressing the fourth conclave

of the North East Democratic Alliance, or NEDA (the north-eastern version of the NDA), in

Guwahati on September 9, he made a conscious reference to the Citizenship Amendment Bill

(CAB), 2019. He said, “our intention is to expel illegal immigrants from the entire country and not

just Assam.”

The CAB is an outrightly sectarian Bill, which will change the definition of illegal immigrants. The

government seeks to amend it in order to facilitate the grant of Indian citizenship to non-Muslim

immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who are of Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist

and Christian extraction and who had migrated to India without valid travel documents or the

validity period of whose documents had expired during their stay in India. These people were

compelled to seek refuge in India owing to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution in

their countries of origin. The Bill has no provision for Muslim sects such as Shia and Ahmadiyya,

whose members face persecution in Pakistan.

By the government's own admission to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which was set up

in 2016 under the chairmanship of BJP Member of Parliament P. Rajendra Aggarwal to examine the

Bill and receive feedback from stakeholders, the total number of such “persecuted persons” was

around 31,313 among whom Hindus constituted the largest chunk, 25,447, followed by Sikhs at

5,807, Christians at 56, and Buddhists and Parsis numbering only two each.

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Their problems ranged from claims of being discriminated against in jobs, being called “kafir”

(disbeliever), their places of worship getting destroyed, and men and women being compelled to

wear clothes of a particular religious denomination. Notwithstanding the small numbers, the CAB

has been opposed by the indigenous tribes of the north-eastern States for the potential floodgates

it could open in the future. Those who oppose the Bill argue that Assam will be a “victim” in view of

its immediate proximity to Bangladesh. It was also opined that if Bangladesh could be removed

from the list of countries identified under the CAB, the people of Assam would have no objection

to it. The JPC submitted its report to Parliament in January 2019.

According to Amongla Jamir, R.K. Satapathy, S. Mangi Singh and Shreyas Sardesai, authors of a

survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Lokniti, which was

published in Economic and Political Weekly (Volume 54, Issue 34, August 24, 2019), despite a high

degree of awareness plus opposition to the CAB, it was not a major determiner of voting

preferences. The BJP won nine of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Assam; it won both Arunachal East and

Arunachal West in Arunachal Pradesh; one out of two seats in Manipur; and both the seats in

Tripura.

The party gained six seats more than its 2014 tally, winning 14 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the

region. More than the CAB, it was the NRC that was the major reason for turning voter enthusiasm

towards the BJP and its NEDA partners. With the BJP back in power at the Centre with a huge

mandate, it is once again pursuing the agenda of enacting the CAB. The Bill, with its singularly

exclusionary character, gives the BJP another opportunity to reinforce its majoritarian agenda. The

irony is that while the NRC fulfilled the ideological demographic agenda of the BJP and raised the

jingoistic quotient within the north-eastern region, the amendments to the Citizenship Bill, which

have a similar sectarian objective, have been met with resistance by the same sections that pushed

for the NRC on the grounds that it would alter the demographic pattern in the region, particularly

Assam, and pose a threat to the political, economic, cultural and social affairs of the indigenous

people.10 The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will ask the Modi government to reintroduce the

Citizenship Amendment Bill by December. The move follows the discovery that the National

Register of Citizens does not have names of 1,906,657 people, a majority of whom are believed to

be Hindus.

10 https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article29498656.ece

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“We have been saying that NRC will not bear results and Assam will not be free of foreigners. The

final NRC has proved this right. A large number of Hindus and other local communities have been

excluded from NRC. We will insist that the Centre reintroduce the Citizenship Amendment Bill by

December, immediately after the appeal at the foreigners’ tribunal is completed. This NRC cannot

be final,” said a senior RSS leader who did not wish to be named.

The RSS leader said several organisations would move the Supreme Court demanding 20% sample

reverification of the draft NRC, published in July 2018, in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10% in

other districts and “those left out after the tribunal’s verdicts can be covered in the citizenship bill”.

He said several people who had filed objections did not turn up during hearing. “We will also press

for an all-India NRC. Assam NRC updating will serve as a template. Finally, we will have one nation,

one NRC. We have also asked our volunteers to offer assistance to genuine Indian citizens,” he

said.11

11 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/rss-to-ask-for-reintroduction-of-

citizenship-amendment-bill/articleshow/70969254.cms?from=mdr

Page 22 of 23

Chapter 4: Conclusion

Some of BJP’s allies have voiced concerns over reintroduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

They fear that CAB could alter the demography of the north-eastern states. They wanted that their

states be kept out of the purview of the CAB. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma urged

Shah to take all the states of the region into confidence before bringing in the legislation again.

"What will happen after CAB? Will people continuously come from Bangladesh? Will there be any

deadline or a continuous flow? We in Northeast have such fears," Sangma said.

Strongly opposing the bill, BJP ally and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said the "highly

controversial" Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will change the demography of the Northeast, if it is

implemented by the Centre. Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has requested Shah to exclude

the North East from the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. "The Citizenship Bill is a very

sensitive issue here. In most of the states where political parties supported it, they are on the verge

of suicide," he said.

Impact on Assam

Shah’s reiteration that the Centre plan to reintroduce the Bill comes at a time when the BJP is

dealing with an unfavourable outcome of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam.

The final NRC was published on August 31. About 3.11 crore people made it to the list while the

names of over 19 lakhs were missing. Many people who are missing from NRC, belong to the

Hindu Bengali community – BJP’s traditional vote base in Assam. Reports suggest that the BJP has

rolled out a multi-pronged strategy to salvage the situation there. The strategy includes wooing

Hindu Bengalis with CAB, among other tactics.12

A day after Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the BJP plans to reintroduce the Citizenship

Amendment Bill by November, he said the draft bill will be tweaked and more conditions added.

"Citizenship Bill will be moved in parliament once again, but it will have a lot of new features. It will

12 https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/reintroduction-of-citizenship-amendment-bill-amit-shah-tries-

to-address-northeast-allies-concerns-4419151.html

Page 23 of 23

have a cut-off date of December 30, 2014. It will be tweaked and will have new provisions and

riders," Mr Sarma told reporters in Guwahati.

The bill proposes to give Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis

from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after seven years of residence in India instead of 12

years, even if they don't have valid documents. "It will not override the provisions of Article 371, the

provisions of 6th Schedule of India and protection of tribal culture, language and ethnicity and

state laws. It will not override the Inner Line Permit regime in the north-east," he said at an event.

"There will be a new draft of the bill," he added. Mr Sarma said since the National Register of

Citizens has already given out a number of exclusions, some statistical disclosure will be made

soon, indicating at the total number of Hindus left out of the NRC of the 19 lakhs. The NRC, also

known as the Assam citizens' list, seeks to segregate Indian citizens living in the state from those

who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh and other countries after March 25, 1971. The

NRC was first published in Assam in 1951. The BJP's strategist for the north-east said the Assam

government will keep requesting the Supreme Court to re-verify the final NRC data.13

13 https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/assam-may-reintroduce-citizenship-amendment-bill-says-bjp-strategist-

himanta-biswa-sarma-2106866