Who will benefit from the new CAA Rules?
Why are several communities in States like West Bengal and Assam conflicted about the process?
The story so far: n March 11, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024. The notification enabled the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, which for the first time allows citizenship based on religion. It amended the Citizenship Amendment Act, 1955, making two key changes to facilitate citizenship to undocumented migrants belonging to six nonMuslim communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian— from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, and reduces the period to qualify for citizenship from existing 11 years to 5 years.
OThough the legislation was brought in for undocumented migrants, the Rules specify several documents that are to be uploaded on an online portal before the application is processed. A document issued by a government authority in the three countries, one document issued by Indian authorities, a sworn affidavit declaring the country of origin and date of entry in India along with an eligibility certificate to be issued by a locally reputed community institution certifying that a person follows one of the six faiths are mandatory.
The Ministry has specified the following nine documents to prove that the applicant belongs to the three countries — any document, copy of the passport, birth certificate, school or educational certificate, any identity document, licence, land or tenancy records issued by the government of Afghanistan or Bangladesh or Pakistan, any document that shows that either of the parents or grandparents or great grandparents of the applicant is or had been a citizen of one of the three countries or registration certificate or residential permit issued by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer in India.
The applicant has to upload any one of the 20 listed documents such as Aadhaar, PAN card to prove entry in India. The MHA has not specified the nature of the institution that would certify an applicant’s faith.
When the legislation was passed in the Rajya Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said “lakhs and crores” of people would benefit whereas Derek O’Brien of the Trinamool Congress mentioned that the Director of the Intelligence Bureau had said in a report that around 31,000 people would be the immediate beneficiaries.
Mr. Shah in an interview said the government will soon find a way for people who do not have the required documents to apply under CAA.
A large number of Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India through legal means but find that their documents like visas and passports have expired stand to gain from the CAA as it reduces the waiting period to avail citizenship to five years. However, they were anyway eligible for citizenship under Section 5 and Section 6 (1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. According to Hindu Singh Sodha, Seemant Lok Sangathan, a group that advocates for the rights of Pakistani minority migrants in India, around 80,000 applications of Hindus from Pakistan have been pending with the authorities since 2010. Most Pakistani Hindus and Sikhs came here either on long term visas (LTV) or pilgrim visas. The LTVs given for five years are a precursor to citizenship. The Congressled United Progressive Alliance government in 2011 had decided to grant LTVs to hundreds of Hindus and Sikhs who came to India claiming religious persecution in Pakistan in 2010.
In West Bengal, a section of the Matua sect, who had migrated from Bangladesh (earlier East Pakistan), celebrated after the CAA rules were notified. There are around 2.8 crore people from the Scheduled Caste community who stand to benefit but they will have to declare their connection with Bangladesh first.
Assam is the only State where a National Register of Citizens (NRC) was compiled in 2019 on the directions of the Supreme Court. More than 19 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants in Assam were left out of the list that took five years to compile at a cost of ₹1,220 crore. The Hindus, excluded from NRC and who stand to benefit from the CAA, may be reluctant to apply. According to Aman Wadud, an Assambased lawyer, under the CAA, the Bengali Hindus will have to declare that they came from Bangladesh whereas they applied as Indians for NRC.
The story so far: n March 11, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on social media the successful flight test of an Agni V ballistic missile with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) technology by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) under ‘Mission Divyastra’. It placed India in a small group of countries with this technology, by which a single missile can deliver multiple nuclear warheads.
OA MIRV is a ‘missile bus’ whose passengers are nuclear bombs and which facilitates a single booster to deliver them to different targets, Silky Kaur wrote in an article in Air Power Journal in 2022. “In 1970, the U.S. started to deploy the Minuteman III, the first MIRVed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with three warheads on each missile. In 1971, it deployed the Poseidon, the first MIRVed submarinelaunched ballistic missile (SLBM) which had the capability of carrying up to 10 warheads on each missile,” the article added.
The Soviet Union followed the U.S. and by the 1970s developed its own MIRVed ICBM and SLBM technology. A Russian MIRVed missile under development may be able to carry up to 16 warheads, each in a separate reentry vehicle, according to the Centre for Arms Control and NonProliferation, and some MIRVed missiles can hit targets as far as 1,500 km apart.
The U.K. and France also possess the technology.
China has developed and deployed MIRV technology with multiple warheads placed on its DF5B ICBMs and is fast expanding and modernising its nuclear arsenal. According to Yearbook 2023 of the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China could potentially have at least as many ICBMs as either the U.S. or Russia by the turn of the decade.
In a 1997 Congressional Research Service report for the U.S. Congress, Jonathan Medalia wrote MIRVs are a “force multiplier” because one MIRVed missile can strike several targets. “This is especially important for SLBMs; if each missile carries, say, four warheads instead of one, then one submarine can do the work of four, saving a fleet the cost of many missiles and submarines. MIRVs are also useful for saturating and penetrating ballistic missile defences.”
The DRDO said in a statement it conducted the test from Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha, with various telemetry and radar stations tracking and monitoring multiple reentry vehicles. “The mission accomplished the designed parameters.”
Sources said the MIRV system is equipped with indigenous avionics systems and high accuracy sensor packages that ensure the reentry vehicles reach the target points with the desired accuracy. “The capability is an enunciator of India’s growing technological prowess,” sources said. “The project director is a woman and it [the project] has significant contribution by women.”
The ‘Agni’ series of missiles constitute the backbone of India’s nuclear weapons delivery, and Agni V is the longest range missile in the
Sunday, March 17, 2024
According to a group that advocates for the rights of Pakistani minority migrants in India, around 80,000 applications of Hindus from Pakistan have been pending with the authorities since 2010
arsenal, with a reach of over 5,000 km. This means it can reach most of China, especially with a smaller warhead, which would increase the range further. MIRV technology gives better leverage in this regard.
Mission Divyastra is significant for several reasons. In 1998, India conducted nuclear tests under Pokhran II. In 2003, it declared its nuclear doctrine based on a ‘no first use’ (NFU) policy and reserved the right to massive retaliation in case it was attacked first. Based on this, India announced its decision to maintain a minimum credible deterrence and a nuclear triad – comprising aircraft, missiles, and submarines – to deliver these nuclear weapons which has since been completed with ballistic missile submarines of the Arihant class conducting deterrence patrols. Specific technical characteristics of the MIRV technology tested are not yet known.
A MIRVed missile enhances the redundancy as a single missile can perform the role of several. It can help defeat ballistic missile defences, which is especially important since India’s adversaries are deploying sophisticated air defences.
The technology development is without doubt significant given its sophistication and applications. However, Mission Divyastra was the maiden test of the MIRV technology; there will be a few more tests to validate the various associated components and processes before MIRVed Agni V can be declared fit for serial production.
The more important aspect to look out for now is the reactions from China and Pakistan. There has been a triangular contest between India, China, and Pakistan for long, with China trying to counter the U.S., and India trying to balance the asymmetry with China, and Pakistan, in turn, trying to even the scales with India.