The Citizenship Amendment Act: The Death Of India

In India, there are massive public protests against the recently enacted Citizenship Law. Students from different colleges in India took to the streets protesting this rule. The progressive civil society joined the marches. The regime, on the other side, tries to counter it with brute force. Nevertheless, demonstrations do not seem to stop. The Indian Parliament’s Citizenship Law passed last week is very controversial. The Citizenship Act, 2019, seeks to amend 1955’s original Citizenship Act. The object of this amendment is to state unequivocally that individuals belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Budh, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh to India and fleeing religious persecution or fearing persecution will not be considered as illegal migrants even though they have no passport or legal travel documents. As is evident from the above, Muslims who reached India in the same way without a passport or other travel documents are exempt from this special dispensation and will stay classified these illegal migrants. This legislation aims to give Indian citizenship to all individuals belonging to those as mentioned above, six religious communities, except Muslims.