The ruling BJP’s entire citizenship project remains vague but Assam’s experience is an indication of how the system will gamed to fulfil a grand objective.
In a podcast interview on March 14 with ANI’s Smita Prakash, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was asked what will happen to those who are entitled to get Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act but do not have the required documents.
“Those who do not have documents, we will find a way for them later,” he said.
The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014.
On being further quizzed about how eligible second- or third-generation migrants would prove their legacies in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Shah replied: “All those who came to India between August 15, 1947, and December 31, 2014, they and their children are welcome to India.”
Neither of these responses adequately address the questions that Prakash asked. They are jarringly broad and vague. The lack of clarity is striking as the home minister was talking just two days after the Narendra Modi government notified the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act on March 11.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.