311 MPs voted in favour 80 against it
Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Lok Sabha tonight passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill 2019 after a long and heated debate for more than 10 hours. 311 member voted in the favour of the bIll and 80 against it.
Earlier, Home minister Amit Shah introduced the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 in the House amidst uproar by the opposition members. The legislation is intended to amend the existing law in order to grant an exemption to illegal migrants in selected categories.
The legislation is intended to amend the existing law in order to grant exemptions to illegal migrants in selected categories. The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants of six communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship.
The communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians. The legislation relaxes the 11-year criteria for citizenship to six years for refugees belonging to these six religions. The Bill also proposes to give immunity to such refugees facing legal cases after being found illegal migrants. The amendment will not be applicable to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and in the areas covered under the Inner Line Permit. The ILP regime is applicable in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
Introducing the Bill and reply to the debate, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Bill is not against minorities and does not violate Article 14 of the constitution.
Congress, TMC and DMK members opposed the introduction of the Bill in the House. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said it is regressive and violates Article 14 of the constitution.
RSP leader N K Premchandran also opposed the Bill saying it violates the basic feature of the Constitution. Prof Saugata Roy of TMC also opposed Bill’s introduction.
Initiating the discussion, Manish Tiwari of Congress said the Bill is against the spirit and the basic structure of the Constitution.
Rajendra Agarwal of BJP accused the Congress of opposing the Bill with a selective interpretation of secularism, keeping vote bank politics in mind.
Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK questioned as to why Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are excluded in the Bill.
Abhishek Banerjee of AITC termed the Bill as another trap after the NRC.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress said the Bill has chosen refugees of only three Muslim-majority neighbouring countries. Meenakshi Lekhi of BJP said the Bill aims to protect minorities from the medieval religious laws followed in the neighbouring countries.
Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM questioned as to why Muslims of the PoK and Tibet are exempted from the bill. Gaurav Gogoi of Congress alleged that the Bill poses a threat to the identity and rights of tribals of North Eastern States.
NK Premachandran of RSP said, the Bill would allow illegal migrants also citizenship on the basis of their religion.
The Bill is introduced without proper definition of religious persecution. Indra Hung Subba of Sikkim Krantikar Morcha appealed to exempt Sikkim state from purview of the Bill.
Lalro Sangha of Mizo National Front, Dr. Lorho S Pfoz of Naga People’s Front, Naba (Hira )Kumar Savania, Agatha K Sangma of National People’s Front, Shankar Lalwani of BJP, Pradyot Bordoloi of Congress also spoke. The discussion is on.
Salient features of the Citizen Amendment Bill
The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants of six communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. The communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians. The legislation relaxes the 11-year criteria for citizenship to six years for refugees belonging to these six religions.
The Bill also proposes to give immunity to such refugees facing legal cases after being found illegal migrants. The amendment will not be applicable to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and in the areas covered under the Inner Line Permit (ILP).
The ILP regime is applicable in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. The bill was passed by the last Lok Sabha but it could not be taken up in the Rajya Sabha.