Citizens Amendment Act Notified, Protests Break Out in Assam, Kerala

Protests emerged in different parts of the country as the Central government on Monday evening issued a notification for the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA, which comes into effect today weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Union home minister Amit Shah posted, “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 delivered on another commitment and realised the promise of the makers of our constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians living in those countries.”

The CAA was cleared by Parliament in December 2019 amid protests by activists and opposition politicians. However, its implementation has sparked protests again.

In Kerala, police resorted to lathi charge as protesters took to the street against the implementation of CAA.

In Assam, section 144 was imposed in Sonitpur District as civil society groups and political parties announced statewide protests against the CAA on Tuesday. Security has also been beefed up as the civil bodies announce bandh and nationwide protest on Tuesday.

"We don't accept the CAA," was the immediate reaction of anti-CAA organisations in Assam. Additional police and paramilitary personnel were deployed around the state Secretariat, Assembly compound in Guwahati.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and other organisations are opposing the CAA, arguing that it would lead to a reduction in the indigenous Assamese population by granting citizenship to a significant number of post-1971 Hindu Bengali migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Reacting to the announcement, Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi called it a “black day for Assam”.

Calling Assamese people to fight the Act’s implementation in the state, Gogoi, former general secretary of the All Assam Students’ Union, said on X: “This Act will crush the identity, land and cultural rights of the community.”

He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of seeking the votes of the Assamese community to protect their rights but ending up giving it the biggest blow.

Assam experienced violent protests in December 2019 following the passage of the CAA by Parliament. The agitation escalated into violence, resulting in at least five deaths among anti-CAA protesters due to police firing.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police have enhanced security arrangements in northeast Delhi, Shaheen Bagh, Jamia and other areas in the national capital on Monday since the announcement. The police will also carry out flag marches in parts of northeast and southeast Delhi as well.

Speaking about the current security arrangements in the national capital, DCP of North East Delhi Joy Tirkey said: "We have made arrangements in the North East district. Our experience in 2020 was unpleasant which resulted in heavy loss… We had a meeting of the Aman Committee where we briefed people of both communities. We have tagged the potential troublemakers and some known criminals.

"We are in touch with our beat constables and keeping an eye on social media too. We are doing a flag march for two days and will have an extensive flag march from tomorrow. Special care will be taken in sensitive areas through drones."

The Gautam Buddh Nagar Police also conducted a flag march in Noida, following the Centre's announcement.

“As per the directions given by the CM, we are conducting foot patrolling at populated and sensitive areas. Through this, we are trying to assure people that we are with them,” Joint Commissioner Shivhari Meena said.

Without rules being framed, the Act could not be implemented.

Earlier, in a statement released on X (formerly Twitter), the Union Home Minister had said, “The applications (for citizenship) will be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided.”

The CAA aims to provide citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians purportedly fleeing persecution from India’s Muslim-majority neighbours – namely, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who arrived in India before 2015.

The exclusion of Muslims from the provisions of the legislation and fears that it would disenfranchise many Muslims in India when combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) had drawn widespread protests from thousands of citizens across the country. Many tribal communities are also excluded.

The notification also comes less than a month after Home Minister Amit Shah called the CAA "an act of the country" and said, “it will definitely be notified. CAA will come into effect before the election...”

The Home Minister, who led the government's charge on this topic in both houses of Parliament, also played down fears the CAA, and the NRC, or National Register of Citizens, will be used to target Muslims.

Despite the protests and violence that ensued, the government notified the law in January December 2020. Opposition parties, however, hit out at the BJP government for notifying the rules just weeks ahead of the general elections.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday described the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as a law that creates division along communal lines and affirmed that it will not be put into effect in the southern state.

"The government has repeatedly stated that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which treats Muslim minorities as second-class citizens, will not be implemented in Kerala. That remains the position. All of Kerala will stand united in opposing this communally divisive law," Vijayan said in a statement.

Addressing a press conference in Kolkata before the Home Ministry’s announcement, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that her Trinamool Congress party, which has opposed the CAA in the past, will first study its rules to see if it is depriving people of their rights.

“Let me see the rules first. I am just watching. The notification and rules are not out yet. Once they are out, we will see if [people] … are being deprived of their rights under the rules, then we will fight against it. Let us study it properly first,” she said.

Banerjee continued, “But this is the BJP’s publicity for elections, it is nothing else. This law was passed in 2020 and since then, four years have passed. Now that elections are coming, they have brought this, but it will not benefit anyone.”

The Trinamool boss also pointed out the CAA, the NRC, and the NPR, or National Population Register, were sensitive topics in Bengal and the northeast, and that she does not want unrest before the election.

Congress MP and general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said that the four years and three months taken by the Modi government to notify the rules “is yet another demonstration of the Prime Minister’s blatant lies”.

Ramesh questioned the timing of the notification of the rules before the elections, calling it an attempt to “polarise” and said it was a bid to manage headlines after the Supreme Court dismissed the State Bank of India’s plea earlier in the day seeking more time to furnish details relating to electoral bonds.

Soutik Banerjee, an advocate meanwhile, said that CAA was a distraction from the electoral bond issue as the notification does not change anything.

“Nothing changes with it being notified. Its constitutionality will be judged by the Court. Don’t fall for the trap. Talk about electoral bonds and how the government got SBI to try and defy the court order,” he said, taking to X.

Meanwhile, a few petitions challenging the legal validity of the CAA are still pending before the Supreme Court.

In October, the Union government submitted an affidavit in the court defending the law and calling it a “benign piece of legislation”.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, who served as court-appointed interlocutor during protests against the CAA in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh in 2020, told the Press Trust of India that it was “surprising” that the Union government “did not find time earlier to notify the CAA rules”.

“The Act has been challenged in the Supreme Court, there has been no specific stay, the matter hasn’t been heard for some time. In the meanwhile, the rules have been notified and I am sure that in respect of the implementation of rules, there will be appropriate petitions filed,” he was quoted as saying.

Hegde added: “It is possible that the government wanted to notify these rules before the Model Code of Conduct comes into play.”