The bill was passed after hours of fiery discussion and verbal clash between the government and the Opposition.The proposed law seeks to grant Indian Citizenship to persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have migrated to India after facing persecution on grounds of religion in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Home Minister Amit Shah, while batting for the legislation, rejected the Opposition’s contention that it was targeted against Muslims.
“Nowhere does this bill target India’s minority community, but illegal immigrants would not be allowed to stay in the country at any cost,” he asserted.
Replying to the debate, Shah said that misconceptions are being spread about the bill that it is against any particular community, but this is a humanitarian step to grant citizenship to those who suffered for the last 70 years.
Seeking to allay apprehensions of the north eastern states, he announced that Manipur would be brought under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime and with that the problems of all the states in the region would be taken care of.
He also reassured that no provision of Article 371 would be violated by this bill and that the linguistic, cultural and social identity of the people of the North East would be preserved.
“The provisions of the amendments to the Act would not apply to the tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under ‘The Inner Line’ notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873,” he said.
