Question

India sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations’; in this context justify your view on the changes brought about by the citizenship amendment bill, 2016.

Answer 1

Approach:

1. Mention about the historical accommodation of refugees by India.
2. Discuss about the features of the citizenship amendment bill, 2016.
3. Analyze the pros and cons of the bill.
4. List out the possible impact of the bill.
5. Provide an appropriate conclusion.

India and Refugees:
India welcomed the refugees right from its initial days of independence. The partition of India resulted in millions of refugees from the Pakistan poured into India. After that many waves of refugees had reached India like the Tibetians, Afghans, Bangladeshis, Srilankan Tamils among others. Thus India stood to the words of Swami Vivekanandha “I am proud to be from a nation that sheltered the persecuted and refugees of all nations and religions.

Citizenship amendment bill, 2016:
The bill proposes to provide citizenship to illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan belonging to Hindu, Christian, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains and Parsis community in India. It has diluted the norms of the citizenship act, 1955 like reducing the number of years of stay in India from 11 years to 6 years.

Pros and Cons of the bill:
The welcome part of the bill is it aims to protect the most persecuted sections of the people from our neighbouring countries. This gives the migrants rights and opportunity to develop himself as an Indian citizen. It also helps to ensure national security and peace in the society as the stigma of foreigners will be removed.

On the other hand the rationale behind the discrimination on the basis of religion is not clear. The status of refugees from other communities who were also persecuted is not addressed in the bill. Some of the them are the Srilankan Tamils, Rohingyas, some muslim communities and Jews. Thus clearly it makes an discrimination on the basis on religion which goes against the Indian constitutional values.

Impact of the bill:
Some of the possible impact in implementing the provisions are the demographic change in Northeastern states and communal violence as a result of it. The vote bank politics to satisfy political ideology at the cost of national interest. Delay in the national register of citizens provisions in the state of Assam.

Conclusion:
Though India is not a party to both the refugee convention, !951 and protocol, 1967, it protected the people who approached India. The similar spirit of the nation has to followed in all cases without any discrimination on the basis of religion or ethinic. The long term national interest and its culture has to be given precedence over the political parties ideological interest.