Under New Citizenship Law, Applicants May Have to Provide Proof of Religious Belief

New Delhi: As protests over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act continues, a government source said on Tuesday that the rules for the new law are at the final stage.

Elaborating on the provisions of CAA, the source told News18 that under the new law proof of religious belief will be required to prove persecution.

The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014. President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on December 12, turning it into an Act.

The source further said that the government may also accept Assam government's demand of a smaller window of CAA applications. The state had requested the home ministry for a limited-time window, possibly as short as three months, for illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship.

A Times of India report quoted a BJP government source as saying that the time-bound application period was enough to accommodate the estimated 3 lakh migrants in Assam belonging to minority faiths of Bangladesh, who may like to seek citizenship by naturalisation as per the CAA provisions.

Several citizens in India and abroad and even state governments have protested against the amended act, calling in "discriminatory". On Monday, the West Bengal government tabled a resolution against the CAA in the Assembly, becoming the fourth state to do so. Earlier, Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab had passed the resolution.

The EU Parliament is also set to debate on the resolutions tabled by a large chunk of its members against the Citizenship Amendment Act, saying the enactment of the new law marked a dangerous shift in India's citizenship regime.

A total of six resolutions have been tabled by groups within the EU, including the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew) and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group.

The resolutions have a similar theme with a number of them, such as the one tabled by the GUE/NGL Group, also making a reference to the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. They are set to be debated in the European Parliament in Brussels next Wednesday and voted the day after.