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Lok Sabha passed the bill on Monday, with 311 members voting in its support and just 80 against.
New Delhi:
The Citizenship Amendment Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha after nearly 12 hours of heated discussions on Monday, with 311 voting in support and 80 against. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who introduced the bill, had earlier rejected the opposition’s claim that it violates the constitution’s core principles of equality by saying that it was not even “0.001% against India’s minorities”. He also questioned the Congress’ right to dub the bill as discriminatory when it is the very party that “divided India on the grounds of religion” during the 1947 partition. Opposition parties have spoken out against the bill because it proposes to expedite the citizenship process for “minority migrants” from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, leaving those from the Muslim community out of its ambit.
Here are the top ten developments in the Citizenship Bill debate in parliament.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the Lok Sabha minutes after the legislation was passed. “Delighted that the Lok Sabha has passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, after a rich and extensive debate. I thank the various MPs and parties that supported the bill. This bill is in line with India’s centuries-old ethos of assimilation and belief in humanitarian values,” he tweeted.
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In his address delivered earlier in the day, Amit Shah had said that neither Muslims nor those from the Northeast should fear the bill because it only aims to help minority migrants. “Lakhs and crores of such people have been suffering without homes, education and hygiene,” he said.
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He rejected allegations that the bill was anti-Muslim, claiming that it has the endorsement of 130 crore citizens. “The Citizenship Amendment Bill does not include Muslims migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan only because they are not minorities there. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
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Amit Shah also denied claims that the centre was trying to turn India into a “Hindu Pakistan”. “This is wrong. The population of Muslims in India has increased from 9.8 per cent to 14.2 per cent. On the other hand, the number of minorities in Pakistan has gone down from 23 per cent in 1947 to 3.7 per cent,” he said.
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The Union Minister explained that many parts of the Northeast have been excluded from the bill’s purview in view of their objections. His assurance came amid protests in the region, where people claim that it will harm their identity.
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Although the Shiv Sena — the BJP’s ally-turned-rival in Maharashtra — had earlier sent mixed signals on the bill, the party supported it at the end of the day. Sena MP Sanjay Raut had hinted at such an outcome in a tweet posted earlier.
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The Congress was vehement in its opposition to the legislation. “The bill is against the Constitution, against the spirit of Constitution and against the ideology propounded by Babasaheb Ambedkar,” party leader Manish Tewari said.
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His party colleague, Shashi Tharoor, claimed that the BJP’s thought process was similar to that of Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He said that the BJP, like Mr Jinnah, thinks that “Pakistan is a country for Muslims and we should be a country for Hindus”.
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AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi created a flutter in the Lok Sabha by tearing a copy of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, claiming that it was “worse than Hitler’s laws”. He also said that such a law, if enacted, will divide the nation and bring about another partition.
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The original Citizenship Act of 1955 stated that individuals seeking Indian citizenship should have lived in the country for 11 of the last 14 years. The amendment proposes to reduce that period to five years for non-Muslim applicants, and grants them immunity from punitive action under the National Register of Citizens exercise.
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