Amidst Huge Protest Against The CAB, Amit Shah To Table The Bill In Parliament Today

Amidst Huge Protest Against The CAB, Amit Shah To Table The Bill In Parliament Today

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is ready to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha today, amid opposition objections and widespread protests within the Northeast against what several of its residents claim may be a move to nullify a decades-old accord geared toward stemming prohibited immigration.

Amit Shah will introduce the bill to amend the six-decade-old Citizenship Act this afternoon, once that it might be obsessed for discussion and passage. The legislation seeks to make it easier for non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Islamic State of Afghanistan to realize citizenship within the country.

The cogent North East Students' Organisation has proclaimed an 11-hour bandh on Tuesday against what they believe is an endeavor to destruct the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the closing date for deportation of all illegal immigrants regardless of their religious background. In Assam, distinguished student groups have vulnerable to launch a full-scale agitation - almost like the one from last year - if the bill is passed.

The original Citizenship Act of 1955 stated that people seeking Indian citizenship ought to have lived within the country for 11 of the last 14 years. The amendment proposes to cut back that point amount to 5 years for non-Muslim candidates, and grants them immunity from government action touching on their prohibited standing.

Many opposition leaders, together with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, have termed the amendment as discriminatory. "If you provide citizenship to any or all communities, we'll accept it. But if you discriminate on the basis of religion, we'll fight it," Ms. Banerjee warned the centre recently. Mr. Tharoor, on the opposite hand, called it a "fundamentally unconstitutional" piece of legislation that violates the "basic idea of India".

However, the BJP maintains that the legislative action is required to provide refuge to "persecuted minorities" in close countries. "This bill intends to shield folks that are religiously persecuted in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh... so how can you expect it to be secular?" Assam BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma asked the media.

.However, the draft bill - cleared by the Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently - will create concessions for specific areas that are opposition to its implementation. To pacify agitators within the Northeast who believe that permanently settling illegal immigrants will disturb the demography of the region, the government has introduced provisions to exclude regions coming beneath the Inner Line Permit regime and also the sixth schedule of the constitution.

The Narendra Modi government had introduced the bill in its previous tenure too, even gaining the Lok Sabha's approval, however, couldn't introduce it in the upper house (Rajya Sabha) due to protests in the northeast. The legislation eventually lapsed.

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