CAA implementation: MHA opens web portal for six minority communities to apply for Indian citizenship

NEW DELHI: A day after implementation of rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by the central government, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) provided a web portal on Tuesday for people persecuted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh on religious grounds of six minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians-- to apply for Indian citizenship.
The web portal link (https:/indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in) comes as the MHA on Monday notified the rules under CAA 2019, now called CA 2024. The rules grant Indian citizenship to these refugees who had sought shelter in India before December 31, 2014. In the old law, a migrant had to live in India for 'not less than 11 years' to qualify for citizenship. CAA reduced it to 'not less than five years' for the persecuted minorities who are eligible.

According to MHA’s annual report for 2021-22, at least 1,414 foreigners belonging to these non-Muslim minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were given Indian citizenship by registration or naturalisation under the amended Citizenship Act, 1955.
CAA has been widely opposed and protests across the country were one of the reasons behind its delay. The protests were on two premises — discrimination against Muslims and the potential spillover effect on the updation of the now-delayed National Population Register (NPR), 2020, and another contentious proposal of preparing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) at the state or national level. Civil society criticised CAA, accusing the government of furthering its Hindutva agenda.
CAA had come against the backdrop of an NRC exercise in Assam, where in June 2018, the draft list of citizens excluded about 20 lakh people as they failed to furnish documented proof of their original residency in the state. The assemblies of at least six Congress and left-ruled states of the time — Punjab, West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh — passed resolutions against the implementation of CAA, urging the central govt to recall the amendments.