February,2,2017:
Bill aims to reduce the waiting time from 11 years to 5 years for mon Muslim migrants.
United States President Donald Trump’s Executive Order which has halted immigration from the seven Muslim-Majority countries kindled great outrage on the Indian Social Media.
Forewarned by the Pastor Niemöller and haunted by the visions of rejected H-1B applications and useless green cards, Indians expressed solidarity with American protesters.
News that a Federal Judge in Brooklyn had stayed most odious parts of Donald Trump’s order produced an outpouring of relieved number of likes.
This Principled stance seems to fade closer home: Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which openly discriminates among the illegal migrants on the religious grounds, has drawn little more passion than a handful of edits and the op-eds.
Currently pending with Joint Parliamentary Committee whose report is to be presented in Budget Session, the Bill seeks to make it easier for the certain religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to become Indian citizens by way of naturalization.
In its current form, Bill will make illegal Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants eligible for citizenship after six years of residence; Muslims from above stated countries will still need to wait for full 11 years.
This would mean that if a Sikh and Hazara family which has fled the Taliban affected region of Pakistan together, and are now living in India without any documentation, Sikh family will become eligible for Indian citizenship in five years before Hazara family does, the only difference being their is in their religious affiliations. HT
Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016
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