Citizen Amendment Bill


Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) has been in the news a lot recently. For those of you wondering ‘What is CAB?’ ‘Why are people of Assam protesting against CAB?’

This blog will give you a short glimpse about CAB. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is an Act of the Parliament of India amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 to give a path to Indian citizenship to illegal migrants who entered India on or before 31 December 2014. It also seeks to relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalization from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants. The Act excludes Muslims from such eligibility. 



Assam noticed a huge influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants added to voter list, threatening their land, culture and livelihood. While CAB is supposedly Pan India, almost entire influx happens through the Assam border, which is more than 50 lakhs till date. Assamese are protesting towards the amendment, because, even if 10% people get citizenship the entire demographics of Assam will change and the original people of Assam will be treated as minority.


This bill has brought a feeling that Muslims are of less importance to the country and the government. It seeks to legally establish Muslims as second-class citizens of India by providing preferential treatment to other groups. This violates the Constitution’s Article 14, the fundamental right to equality to all persons. This basic structure of the Constitution cannot be reshaped by any Parliament. And yet, the government maintains that it does not discriminate or violate the right to equality.



- Nehal 




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