Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meet: No consensus on Citizenship Bill

New Delhi: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in New Delhi on Tuesday remained inclusive for the second time on Tuesday.

There was no consensus on the Bill at the meeting with members giving different opinions on it. While a few members said that the word ‘Hindu’ should be removed from the Bill, a few others said that the word “indigenous” should be incorporated in the Bill. “The Bill violates the provisions of the Assam Accord. Also there is the question of constitutionality of the Bill as it differentiates between religions — seeking to give citizenship to people belonging to a particular region, while denying others,” one of the JPC members said, adding that a section of BJP members are in a haste to finalize the report on the Bill without due consultation with others.

Yet a few others suggested that the Bill should be withdrawn in totality, whereas a few others opined for an Amendment to the Bill.

JPC chairman Rajendra Prasad Agrawal convened the meeting for the second time after the first such meeting failed to reach consensus. In the last meeting it was told that all the 30 members of the committee should give their opinions on the Bill, if any.

The next JPC meeting is likely on December 6.

The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant citizenship to people from minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India, instead of 12 years even if they do not possess any proper documents.

Also Read: Top Headlines