Rules for CAA to be framed after COVID vaccination begins: Amit Shah

Background

• CAA or the (Citizenship Amendment Act) was passed by the Parliament in the year 2019 and it seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955.
• The act contains provisions granting Indian citizenship to people belonging to six communities namely; Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Christian, Jain, and Parsi who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before 31st December, 2014.
• The act has specified six religious minorities who will be eligible for Indian citizenship and Muslims are not included in it.
• The reason for the intrusion of these people in India is assumed to be on the grounds of "religious persecution or fear of religious persecution" in their country.
• Exclusion of Muslims led to protests against the CAA across the country as the said act does not give the same rights to people belonging to other faiths and violates Article 14 of the Constitution which reads as, “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India."
• Critics have also stated that exclusion and clear discrimination against a specific community (herein Muslims) undermines India’s secular constitution.
• The central government has stated that Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are Muslim majority countries and therefore, Muslims from these countries are “unlikely to face religious persecution" there.

Recent Updates

• The CAA came into force on 10th January, 2020 and the government was supposed to frame rules for the said act within 6 months which expired on 10th July, 2020 after which the government sought an extension for 3 months which ended on 10th October, 2020. The government thereafter sough another extension for 3 months which will end in January.
• Union Home Minster Amit Shah in a roadshow on Sunday in Bolpur said that, "The rules of the CAA are yet to be framed as such a massive process could not be carried out because of the corona. As soon as (COVID) vaccination starts and corona cycle breaks, we will consider it."

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