To the Lok Sabha, a historic invoice was once presented on December 8, 2019. Called the ‘Citizenship Amendment Bill,’ the law sought to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955. The amendment’s aim was once to furnish persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis Indian citizenship if they arrived in the US earlier than 2014.
What was once meant to be a noble initiative to assist Indic minorities was, unfortunately, dragged into the mud by way of vested activity groups. The Modi authorities used to be accused of being exclusionary in their imagination and prescient due to the fact there was once no idea to provide comparable citizenship advantages to Muslims from throughout the Indian subcontinent. The exclusion of Muslims would go on to become the largest factor of competition between the government, supporters of CAA, and those in opposition to it.
For motives quality recognized to those who antagonistic the law, no effort used to be made to recognize why Muslims located no point out in the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The regulation seeks to furnish Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, and different Indic minorities from three countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Do you recognize what is the frequent thread amongst these three countries? While Pakistan and Afghanistan are explicitly Islamic nations, Bangladesh, notwithstanding being a constitutionally “secular” republic, has viewed mass violence and persecution of non-Muslim minorities, mainly Hindus.
The rivalry of these opposing CAA additionally falls flat on its face when one considers the implications of which include Muslims in CAA. Will that now not clear the deck for complete populations from these nations making use of Indian citizenship? However, logic used to be abandoned very early on in what would eventually become India’s “anti-CAA agitation.”
Remember, CAA has been the sufferer of some of the worst misinformation campaigns over the previous 5 years. While CAA has nothing to do with depriving humans of citizenship or disenfranchising Indian citizens, that is precisely what the BJP was once accused of attempting to do with the law. What is in actuality a device to right historic injustices used to be spun as a political device that would be used alongside NRC to especially goal Indian Muslims. That was once why mass protests broke out towards CAA in 2019 and 2020.
Indian Muslims have been particularly focused on misinformation campaigns that sought to inflame their sentiments, triggering violent agitations throughout the United States of America and even main to riots in North East Delhi. Remember the protests at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and how violence was once strategically timed with Donald Trump’s go-to to India? It was once all based totally on the false narrative that as soon as CAA is implemented, Indian Muslims will be requested to show their citizenship, and if located lacking, will be transported to deportation camps.
No Indian Muslim has been denied the right to vote in the five years that have gone by. Rather, the CAA’s desire has become much more apparent. Hindus in Bangladesh are currently fighting for their lives. Islamist mobs have been on a rampage in the US on account of Sheikh Hasina’s ouster. Even with her in power, it would take a miracle for Hindus to take a look at a peaceable Durga Pujo in Bangladesh. With her gone, all safeguards that minorities in Bangladesh loved have been systematically eliminated. Now, the streets are dominated by mobs on the lookout for Hindus, who are being painted as traitors to Bangladesh.
According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council — an umbrella physique of spiritual minorities in the USA — there have been 200 documented assaults on Hindus in the three days following Hasina’s ouster, in which 5 Hindus had been killed and rankings suffered grievous injuries. Many greater such cases, say leaders of the council, have long gone unreported. Transparency International Bangladesh has recorded 2,010 instances of assaults on Hindus between August 5 and 20, in which 9 Hindus had been killed. In addition to the assaults on Hindus, their homes, businesses, and several temples, about five hundred Hindu police officers, teachers, and authority officers have been compelled to resign using Islamists throughout the country. Apart from Hindus, numerous Buddhists and Christians have additionally come under assault in Bangladesh ever due to the fact Muhammad Yunus took over the country.
The scenario in Pakistan and Afghanistan does now not require an awful lot of elaboration. Non-Muslim minorities face power threats in each of these Islamic nations. Only in October, for instance, Hindus in Pakistan’s Sindh province have been residing in worry as some influential human beings threatened them with dire penalties in the wake of a supposed “blasphemy” incident.
While the lies surrounding the CAA have been exposed, the plight of minorities in neighboring international locations has underscored the legislation’s necessity. The fears propagated with the aid of the naysayers have been established as baseless. Instead of the imagined disenfranchisement of Indian Muslims, what has grown to be evident is the actual and ongoing persecution of minorities in neighboring nations. The CAA used to be designed as a compassionate response to this persecution, and its significance has only grown over time.
Unfortunately, due to a huge misinformation marketing campaign established towards the law, its implementation was once delayed. CAA regulations solely received notification in March this year, simply in advance of the Lok Sabha elections.
Apart from vindicating India’s choice to provide citizenship to non-secular minorities fleeing Islamist persecution from throughout the neighborhood, the persevering assaults on Hindus have also mounted a robust case for the cut-off date of CAA to be achieved away with. Presently, solely these folks who arrived in India earlier than 2014 are eligible to be given citizenship. However, persecution of spiritual minorities continues unabated in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Therefore, there is a pressing want to rescue Indic minorities who are nevertheless dwelling in these three countries. To do so, the Indian authorities need to rid the Citizenship Amendment Act of its cutoff date of 2014. As the pre-eminent democracy in the subcontinent, India has to make certain safety for those who have nowhere else to go. India wishes to provide hope to humans whose lives are being torn aside with the aid of systemic persecution.