Government of India has decided to pass a citizenship amendment bill that would facilitate minorities from Indian sub-continent to get Indian citizenship if they are persecuted and at threat in their native countries. Some details are as follows:
The government is likely to clear the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday morning. The bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants in the select categories eligible for citizenship. Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh made it clear at the meeting of the BJP parliamentary party on Tuesday that the contentious legislation was the top priority of the government, equating its significance with the decision to turn Article 370 into a dead letter and asked party lawmakers to ensure their presence when home minister Amit Shah tables the bill next week.
Minorities in the neighbouring theocratic countries have been subjected to continuous persecutions, which forced them seek asylum in India. Giving citizenship to six minorities will be yet another push from the Modi government to the spirit of ‘sarva dharma sambhav’,” defence minister Rajnath Singh said in his address.
My opinion on this matter is not a clear yes or no. India is already over-populated and people are facing resource and job crunch. In this condition, inviting thousands of such outside people would create pressure on the economy and society especially in big cities since most migrants from outside India tend to head for big cities because of more earning potential in such cities. At the same time, humanitarian angles would ask us to support this bill since the impacted people are at threat and struggling for survival.
At the same time, any attempt to include Muslims or people from non-Indian religions should be strongly opposed. India was divided in 1947 and separate nation was made for Muslims so there is no point invite Muslims from other nations to come and settle in India, since this would make a mockery of partition and would also provide renewed threat of repeat of partition like scenario in the long term future.
I think we can trust our government that it is doing the right thing to do in this matter after consulting experts in sociology and polity and has reviewed both the merits and demerits of this move. As a precautionary measure I would suggest that government should limit the number of such outside citizens who come to India every year by creating an "yearly quota" - this would control the impact on native people and economy.
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