‘CITIZENSHIP NOT AUTOMATIC’

In contrast to Home Minister Amit Shah claiming in the Rajya Sabha last week that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will provide citizenship to lakhs of Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities living in India illegally, a senior officer of his ministry clarified that the citizenship is not automatic.

He said all refugees or illegal immigrants will not get the citizenship automatically since they have to first apply and then satisfy the process to be initiated by the competent authorities.

The officer said the rules for implementing the Act are still being framed and they will provide the process to be undergone by anyone to acquire the citizenship. The person has to satisfy the concerned district authorities about the religious persecution faced in the original country that forced him to flee.

The clarification comes on the heels of the BJP directing its Lok Sabha members to start a fortnight long drive in their constituencies to identify and approach the refugees living there and help them get the citizenship under the new Act.

BJP national secretary Satya Kumar who is coordinating the exercise said the BJP MPs take care of 303 constituencies from which they have been elected while rest of the country would be covered by the party office-bearers and MLAs. The drive to identify all those who can benefit from the new Act is to be completed by December 31.

He said: “We found that there are several refugees living for years in different parts of the country. In the East Delhi constituency of Gautam Gambhir alone, there are roughly 16,000 refugees from the neighbouring countries, Satya Kumar said.