Centre’s move for citizenship in 5 states stirs anger

In Assam, Aasu opposes ‘backdoor entry of foreigners’, threatens protest

THE NOTIFICATION issued by the ministry of home affairs for five states on Friday lists Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan as the communities that will be covered

A day after the Centre issued a gazette notification inviting citizenship applications in 13 districts of five states — Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab — from members of minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the All Assam Students Union (Aasu) and several others on Saturday threatened to re-intensify their agitation if government resorts to any such move in Assam to grant citizenship to non-Muslim foreign nationals.

Warning that any attempt to extend notification to Assam may prove counter-productive, Aasu president Dipankar Nath said, “The Central government has started the process of granting citizenship to non-Muslim foreigners through the backdoor instead of framing the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court as the Centre was not submitting its reply on framing of CAA rules on the pretext of ongoing Covid crisis, but through a separate gazette notification in five states it has violated and ignored the apex court, too.”

Fearing that the Centre may resort to a similar move in Assam also, Mr Nath said, “People of Assam will not tolerate the CAA. We are not prepared

to take the load of foreigners anymore. We would like to make it very clear that any attempt to provide citizenship to foreigners will have very dangerous implications and fall outs.”

Mr Nath had backed the formation of an anti-CAA political party, Assam Jatiya Parishad, which contested the just concluded Assembly polls but failed to make its presence felt on all the seats.

Lurinjyoti Gogoi, a former Aasu leader and president of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, told reporters that the Centre has started inviting applications without framing the CAA rules. “This reflects the mentality of the BJP government which may soon try to impose the same gazette notification on Assam too. Five youths have already sacrificed their lives in the anti-CAA stir. We would like to warn the Central government to refrain from any such move to provide citizenship to foreigners in the name of giving settlement to Hindus. We will not be silent spectators to such an act of the government,” he said while threatening to relaunch anti-CAA agitation in the state. the

Mr Gogoi contested two Assembly polls from seats and lost both.

Another political party which came into existence after the anti-CAA movement in Assam -- Rijor Dal led by noted jailed peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who got elected in the just conclude Assembly polls too -has also threatened to relaunch their anti-CAA movement in the state if the gazette notification is extended to Assam and Northeast.

The notification issued by the ministry of home affairs for five states on Friday lists Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians as the communities that will be covered, and states that applications have to be submitted online.

The order has been issued under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Citizenship Rules, 2009, and not under the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, since its rules have not yet been framed, sources in the ministry of home affairs said. A similar notification had been issued in 2018 as well for other districts in several states.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 16 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955), the Central government hereby directs that powers exercisable by it, for registration as a citizen of India under Section 5, or for grant of certificate of naturalisation under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, in respect of any person belonging to minority community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians… shall also be exercisable by the Collector, within whose jurisdiction the applicant is ordinarily resident,” the notification said.

The districts listed in the notification are: Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara (Gujarat); Durg and Balodabazar (Chhattisgarh); Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi (Rajasthan); Faridabad (Haryana); and, Jalandhar (Punjab).

It also granted similar powers to the home secretaries of Haryana and Punjab, except for Faridabad and Jalandhar.

“The verification of the application is done simultaneously by the Collector or the Secretary, as the case may be, at the district level and the state level and the application and the reports thereon shall be made accessible simultaneously to the Central Government on online portal,” the order said.

“The Collector or the Secretary, as the case may be, on being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, grants him the citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issues a certificate of registration or naturalisation, as the case may be, duly printed from online portal and signed by the Collector or the Secretary, as the case may be, in the Form as prescribed in the said rules,” the notification said.