WHY DO WE NEED CAA? [PART 1] B.7

By Samartha Chakrawarti - August 13, 2020

Hello Everyone,

In the previous blogs I have discussed about Secularism, Religion, and Hinduism, if you haven't read my previous blog I suggest you should. https://samarthchakrawartiblog.blogspot.com/.

Today's point of discussion is all about the Citizenship amendment act (CAA). I have discussed the introduction of this amendment in my previous blog. If you haven't read it click on the Introduction link and make yourself familiar. CAA is a very detailed topic to talk about, so I will be dividing this topic into two different parts. The first part is all about the "Constitutional nature of CAA" and the second is about the "Social and political nature of CAA".

Key Highlights

Historic Reasons for bringing CAA
What does CAA offer and to whom
Advantages and Disadvantages of CAA (if any)
Understanding the Outrage against CAA.

LETS GET STARTED,

To actually understand this complex topic, we have to understand the history of India at the time of Independence. As we all know that India was Divided into majorly three parts, East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (Now Pakistan). At the time of partition, there was an immense amount of population that was transferred from either side of the country. The partition was made on "RELIGIOUS BASIS", For the Muslim majority, Pakistan was made and for Hindu and another majority, the Republic of India was formed. After the partition of both the countries a bilateral treaty was signed between The prime minister of India and the prime minister of Pakistan. This treaty was popularly known as "Nehru-Liaquat Pact". This pact was made to safeguard the rights of the minority in both the countries and it included the following:

Refugees were allowed to return to dispose of their property.
Abducted women and looted properties were to be returned.
Forced conversions were unrecognized and minority rights were confirmed.
A minority commission was formed.

This was all about the Nehru-Liaquat pact. Further, Pakistan was formed as an Islamic country and it is known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its constitution was majorly influenced by Islamic scriptures. Whereas in our country the Constitution of India was supreme and was not influenced by any scriptures. Article 25-28 of the Indian constitution gives a right to freedom of religion to all its citizens. But in Pakistan the situation was contrary and all the promises made in the pact were violated, and the following were the outcomes.

Attack on religious minorities have claimed hundreds of life
Women belonging to minority communities targeted for forced conversion and marriages.
Even Hindu marriage is illegal and Hindu married women are forced to marry again.
No minority gets a chance to fight cases against this annihilation and police actively participate in torturing the minorities.
If a person is not a follower of Islam then he/she will not be entitled to any constitutional rights.

To save themselves from forced conversions and Annihilation the minority of Pakistan was left with only two options- either to convert themselves or to escape and live in a different country as a refugee. The same thing happened in Bangladesh too. This resulted as people living as refugees in concentration camps in India for over 5 decades. These people do not have access to fresh water, a place to live, food to eat, their children have no access to education facilities, and no job opportunities. Generations have passed away but no political leader of any government tried to solve this problem. To eliminate this problem Government of India introduced an amendment known as "CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT". So what is CAA?

"CAA in simple words grants citizenship to all the maltreated immigrants of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. This amendment includes only the "persecuted minorities" tortured on the basis of religion, which includes Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, and Parsi." the refugee which are living in India at least for 5 years will be given citizenship. This is one of the simplest definitions of CAA You will come across.

Now, there are so many questions that should now hit our minds.

Why Muslims are not included in this act?
Why are we giving Citizenship to an illegal refugee?
Why Afghanistan is included in this? (because Afghanistan was not a part of undivided India)

And with these questions, there are many who were protesting against this amendment and said this act Violates article 14 of the constitution, and some said that no government can bring an amendment based on religion. Even some people opposed it by saying that this is against the minority and Dalits of India.

So in the next blog, I will be discussing the political and social nature of this Act and we will try to decode all the protest which were going all over the nation.

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