What is Citizenship Amendment Act 2019?
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed in the Parliament on December 11, 2019.
The 2019 CAA amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 allowing Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities who fled from the neighboring Muslim majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014 due to "religious persecution or fear of religious persecution".
Under CAA 2019 amendment, migrants who entered India by Dec 31, 2014, and had suffered "religious persecution or fear of religious persecution" in their country of origin, were made eligible for citizenship by the new law.
These type of migrants will be granted fast track Indian citizenship in 6 years.
The amendment also relaxed the residence requirement for naturalization of these migrants from 11 years to 5.
In the order, the Home Ministry made it clear that the CAA doesn't snatch away the citizenship of any Indian citizen and is only meant to help those people who have been facing religious persecution for years and have no other country to go to except India.
Why the controversy?
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 excludes Muslims. The agitators said that new amendment in Citizenship Act discriminates against Muslims and violates the right to equality enshrined in the Constitution of the country.