The Citizenship Amendment bill was passed by the Union cabinet this morning. The bill may be tabled tomorrow in the Parliament.
The Citizenship Amendment bill aims at providing citizenship to refugees from six religions – Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Parsi and Buddhist – who arrived from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh, but excludes Muslim refugees.
It has been said to be a prior step to conducting the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which again aims to drive away illegal refugees from the country.
The ruling party in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress, has maintained that they won’t let the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre implement NRC in the state.
The bill may be tabled in the Rajya Sabha by next week. Although the BJP has a clear majority in the Lok Sabha needed to pass the bill, it will still need the support of 39 more members for passing it in the Rajya Sabha. The bill has been opposed by all the opposition parties like the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam among others.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah held meetings with student associations and other civil society outfits of the Northeast in the past few days and heard out their concerns regarding the bill.
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