GUWAHATI: Only the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) can provide the solution to the citizenship problem faced by the Hindu Bengali community, said Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
CM Himanta Biswa Sarma opined that the problems of Hindu Bengalis can be resolved through the implementation of CAA in the state.
The CM’s response came on the heels of the blistering attack launched by Assam Congress leader Debabrata Saikia on the BJP. Saikia’s contention was that a sizeable number of Hindu families in Udalguri and the Tamulpur districts of Assam have received notices in the last few days, asking them to prove their citizenship.
The Congress’ leader of the opposition in the state assembly leveled the allegation that the BJP claims of protecting Hindu families during speeches in election campaigns, but people belonging to that community in Assam were being ‘harassed’ and asked to prove their citizenship.
“In the past few weeks, several families in Udalguri and Tamulpur received notices to prove their citizenship,” said Debabrata Saikia.
In response to Saikia’s claims, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma retorted, “CAA is the only solution to these problems.”
The Assam CM went on to say, “Unless it is implemented, we do not have any other system to solve the difficulties faced by the Hindu Bengali people in regard to citizenship.”
The Parliament of India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on December 11, 2019.
CAA is an amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955, through which is provided the means of an accelerated gateway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan comprising Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians, with the condition that they should have arrived in India before the end of December 2014.
However, the legislation does not aim to grant such means of citizenship to Muslims choosing to emigrate from these countries.
This was the first time that an act of parliament had overtly cited religion as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law, with the country facing global criticism of being discriminatory.
It was termed “fundamentally discriminatory” by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), while adding that India’s “goal of protecting persecuted groups is welcome”, but this should be accomplished through a non-discriminatory “robust national asylum system”.
Violent demonstrations against the bill took place in Assam and other Northeast states, over fears that granting Indian citizenship to refugees and immigrants will cause a loss of their “political rights, culture and land rights,” while paving the way to further migration from Bangladesh.
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