NPP MP Agatha Sangma Demands Repeal of CAA 2019 During NDA Floor Leaders' Meeting

NEW DELHI: Agatha Sangma, a National People's Party (NPP) MP from Tura and a former Union minister, supported the cancellation of the Citizens' Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 during the NDA parliamentary leaders' meeting at the start of the winter session of Parliament.

The winter session of Parliament will be held from November 29 to December 23, 2021. According to reports in the press, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parliamentary leaders conference held on Sunday in Parliament requested that the Centre rescind the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, was passed by the Indian Parliament on December 11, 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 to provide a path to full citizenship for persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, or Christians who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

According to the legislation, Muslims from these Islamic states are ineligible. The statute was the first time religion was used as a criterion for citizenship in Indian law, and it aroused international censure. In past election manifesto pledges, India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vowed to provide Indian citizenship to representatives of oppressed religious and ethnic minorities who had moved from nearby nations.

Immigrants who arrived in India prior December 31, 2014 and faced "religious oppression or threat of religious persecution" in their home country were eligible to apply under the 2019 amendment. The legislation also lowered the eligibility requirements for these immigrants' naturalisation from twelve to six years. According to Intelligence Bureau figures, the law will benefit just over 30,000 people right now. 

During the NDA coalition parties' floor leaders' meeting, Agatha Sangma, an NPP MP from Meghalaya's Tura seat, told reporters, "I urged the Centre to rescind the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, keeping in mind the views of the people."

The CAA, which was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and proclaimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2020, was received with strong criticism in the Northeast, which feared a large influx of Bangladeshis. Five young people were murdered by police in Assam on December 12, 2019, during a protest against the CAA. On Sunday, the BJP convened its parliamentary executive meeting in Parliament. 

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