Citizenship Act changes stuck over inclusion of Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: Caught between apprehension by some Opposition parties and public protests in parts of Assam, the proposed amendments to the Citizenship Act may hit a roadblock unless the government is willing to remove refugees from Bangladesh as beneficiaries, according to people familiar with the developments.

The Congress and the Left are not in support of the bill in its current form and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has made it clear that it wants Bangladesh to be excluded from the purview of the bill, the people in the know said.

The joint House panel headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Rajendra Agarwal cancelled its latest meeting on May 25, which according to a panel member who asked not to be named, was “an indication that the panel wants to tread cautiously and not prepare the report in haste”.

The amendments aim to relax the deadline for minorities — Hindus, Sikhs and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who have taken shelter in this country — to become Indian citizens. According to the original law, only those minorities who came to India from these countries before 1958 are eligible.

During the Assam Accord, the deadline for Bangladeshis was extended to March 25, 1971. “The new law allows citizenship for immigrants till December 31, 2014,” explained a senior member of the panel.

The bill was introduced in July 2016. It is pending with a joint panel.

“Under the Act, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalisation is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, and for 11 of the previous 14 years. The Bill relaxes this 11-year requirement to six years for persons belonging to the same six religions and three countries,” said a PRS legislative research analysis.

Members of the panel went to Assam, Rajasthan and Gujarat last month to talk to the stakeholders about the bill. “In meetings held in Jodhpur, Ahmedabad and Surat, people welcomed the bill. In Guwahati, people waited till 12.30am to meet us to oppose the bill,” said a second panel member on condition of anonymity.

In Assam, people in the Brahmaputra valley have opposed to the bill on the grounds that citizenship to Bangaldeshi Hindus might take a toll on the social fabric of a state that is battling the large-scale influx of people from across the border.

But the Barak valley, or the lower part of the state which also shares its border with Bangladesh, wants the citizenship law.

“There is a vertical divide in Assam and it’s a sensitive issue,” said Bhartruhari Mahtab, the BJD’s Lok Sabha leader. Another leader added that the Opposition parties had indicated that the bill could be passed if the Bangladesh issue was kept aside for the time being.

Currently, the government has a scheme to grant long-term visas for such refugees to live in India.

There has been a long-standing demand to grant them