Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019- Facts, Myths and Stories

Citizenship Act, 1955
The Citizenship Act, 1955 regulated that anyone can acquire Indian citizenship based on his/her birth in the country or after spending a stipulated period. The period for naturalization for those people was 11 years.
Illegal Migrants
According to toe the previous version of Act, whoever entred the country without valid documents (Visa or Passport) or stayed after the permitted period was considered as an illegal migrant.
The Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 gives the Government power of imprisonment or deportation of the illegal migrants.

2015-2016
In 2015 and 2016, the central government issued two notifications exempting certain groups of illegal migrants from provisions of the 1946 and the 1920 Acts. The groups which were exempted were Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The Ministers and MPs of then ruling party had tried to pass the legislation in the Parliament during the first term of government in 2016, which had failed and thus failed to garner much interest of people and media.

Amendments 2019
⦁    Naturalization process- The naturalization process has been reduced from 11 years to 5 years for the mentioned groups in the Act while the other groups will have to follow the standard 11 years process of naturalization.
⦁    Exemptions for religious groups mentioned- The Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan will not be deported or imprisoned for being in India without valid documents under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 as earlier.
⦁    Illegal Migrants-  The groups mentioned in the Act will not be considered as illegal migrants (if they have entered the country before 1st January 2015).
⦁    Exceptions- The Act leaves out the areas under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and Inner Line Permit. These include Tripura Tribal area district, Garo Hills (Meghalaya), Karbi Anglong (Assam) and Chakma district of Mizoram.  Areas under the ‘Inner Line’ under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 are also exempted from the CAA, 2019.  The Inner Line Permit regulates visit of Indians to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

Problems
Lack of data
The Government of India along with the Governments of countries from where migrants have been allowed don't maintain data particularly dealing with this. Home Ministry of GOI has maintained its stand in Assam (where NRC was applied) saying that it had around 1.9 million migrants from other countries. There was a huge difference in the numbers provided by the Government in about migrants from Bangladesh with a stark decline of 4.1 million in July 2018 to 1.9 million in August 2019. In 2016, the then Minister of State, Kiren Rijiju had mentioned an estimate of around 20 million Bangladeshi migrants who are living in India.
According to the Census 2011, around 5.5 million people in India had reported their last residence outside the country which is roughly 0.44 percent of its total population. Of these 2.3 million (42 percent) came from Bangladesh and 0.7 million (12.7 per cent) from Pakistan. The number of immigrants from Afghanistan was low at 6596.
Lack of resources and the poor state of the economy
The already over populous country is failing to provide employment to its citizens. According to CMIE, the urban unemployment rate in October 2019 was 8.9% whereas the rural remained 8.3%. It was considered as an all-time high in the last three years.
Lack of proper machinery
The Government of India has not prepared any system for the incoming number of migrants and refugees. The inclusion of migrants will need to be followed by providing proper documents, places to settle, jobs and other basic amenities. Many State and Central authorities are still stuck in the process of digitalization of various cards along with making new ones every year. The new tax and land laws are keeping the already busy administration at toes.
The new influx is bound to put a great extent of extra stress on the administration at every level of Indian governance. The lack of data of Government clearly shows the lack of preparedness of GOI which might result in uneasy pressure on administration which always has more than accommodating vacant seats for officials.

Myth Versus Truth
An opportunity for many, thus the rumours.
Myth- The Bill being called unconstitutional on legal grounds fails to find any support as it does not directly deal with Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Fact-
⦁    The State of Objects and Reasons in the Bill states that the historic migration from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan as many of the citizens of undivided India lived in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It fails to make a connection with why Afghanistan was added to the Bill.
⦁    The Bill maintains that the reasons behind the selection of said communities are because they were minorities in their countries and thus they face religious persecution in those countries. Although the Government fails to mention the religious communities such as Hindus of Sri Lanka, Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar in the Bill who have entered Indian territory in large numbers due to religious persecution.
⦁    The Parliamentary Committee which was set up had advised using the term persecuted minorities so that it does not violate Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The Government's interpretation, however, is disputable.

Three Sides of Story

⦁    Assam- Historically, Assam had opposed illegal migration through protests and official delegations. Many of those protests gave birth to senior leaders of the state who are on the centre stage today. The basic threat which looms over the state is of losing the culture, language and control over limited resources. Many of the areas in Assam do not accept the Assamese as an official language and infiltration into the inner parts of tribal areas of the state has also left many Ahomiyas fuming. The new Act also
⦁    Muslims- The largest minority group of India has recently witnessed the increased numbers of lynchings and other religion-based problems. The popular sentiment this Act has spread amongst the Indian Muslims is that the Government of India is maintaining that the people of Islam would not be accepted equally and easlily when compared to other religions. The Act has left out the Muslim persecuted groups such as Ahmadiyas of Pakistan and Rohingyas of Maynmar which further raises concerns for people demanding equal rights for all religions.
⦁    Hindus- The majority community in India has recently witnessed widespread sentiment of defence. The community is worried about the extinction of religion in the place where it was born. This community is also angered and worried about the killings and conversion based on religion in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The fear is not baseless as the recent years has also witnessed an increasing number of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and popular cases of conversion of girls in Pakistan. Many violent attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh were reported before the 2014 General and 2013 Presidential elections.