Centre notifies CAA rules ahead of Lok Sabha polls schedule announcement

The Modi government today notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.

These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation.

With this notification PM Shri @narendramodi Ji has…

— Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AmitShah) March 11, 2024

Despite its enactment four years ago, the CAA could not be implemented because the rules were not notified.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which sought to fast-track the process of granting Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians—but not Muslims—who migrated to India owing to religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019, and the Rajya Sabha two days later. It received the President’s assent on December 12, 2019. Soon after the passage of the law, widespread protests broke out across the country.

E_gazette_11032024 by Express Web on Scribd

The rules for implementation of the Act were never notified and the government sought repeated extensions for framing the rules.

In January, The Indian Express reported that the CAA rules were ready and that the online portal for the process was also in place. According to government sources, the entire process will be online, with applicants having the option to apply from their mobile phones. “All things are in place and yes, they are likely to be implemented before the elections. The applicants will have to declare the year when they entered India without travel documents. No document will be sought from the applicants. Requests of the applicants, who had applied after 2014, will be converted as per the new rules,” the sources had added.

Last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that rules for the CAA would be issued before the coming Lok Sabha polls and that the process to grant Indian nationality to the beneficiaries would start soon after.

“…Granting Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities of the neighbouring countries was a promise of the Congress, too. When the Partition happened—Hindus, Buddhists, Christians—all wanted to come to India after facing religious persecution there. They (Congress leaders) had promised to give citizenship to these people saying all of you are welcome. But the (Congress) leaders went back on their word,” he said.

“Our Muslim brothers are being misled and instigated (against the CAA). The CAA is only meant to give citizenship to those who came to India after facing religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is not for snatching anyone’s Indian citizenship,” he added.