Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016
Table of Contents
1 Aims
- to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction. However, the Act doesn’t have a provision for Muslim sects like Shias and Ahmediyas who also face persecution in Pakistan
- also seeks to reduce the requirement of 11 years of continuous stay in the country to six years to obtain citizenship by naturalisation
2 illegal immigrants
- an illegal immigrant is one who enters India without a valid passport or with forged documents. Or, a person who stays beyond the visa permit
3 Effects
- nullify the updated National Registration of Citizenship (NRC), updating the NRC is currently underway in Assam
- National Register of Citizens (NRC) is meant to identify a bona fide citizen. In other words, by the order of the Supreme Court of India, NRC is being currently updated in Assam to detect Bangladeshi nationals who might have entered the State illegally after the midnight of March 24, 1971
- date was decided in the 1985 Assam Accord, which was signed between the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the AASU.
- NRC does not distinguish migrants on the basis of religion. It will consider deporting anyone who has entered the State illegally post-March 24, 1971, irrespective of their religion