Amid speculations, over the rules to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) senior BJP leader and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said that applicants for citizenship under the legislation will have to submit “three proofs” to be eligible.
The applicants will have to submit proofs about their religion, entry to India prior to 2014 and documents showing their citizenship prior to entering India, Sarma said while speaking to a local television channel here.
“Since CAA is meant for people from select religions, applicants will have to submit proof of them being from one of those [religions]. Secondly, they will have to submit documents to show that they came to India prior to 2015, and lastly some proof that they were citizens of the three countries for which CAA is applicable,” Sarma said.
“For Assam, we have requested the Centre to include the proof that applicants had applied for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC). All these claims would be verified by intelligence agencies and only after they are given a green signal will the applicant get citizenship,” Sarma said.
The minister’s comments come amid speculation by some that applicants would be given citizenship based on just an affidavit submitted by them and without verifying their antecedents and date of entry to India.
{{/usCountry}}The minister’s comments come amid speculation by some that applicants would be given citizenship based on just an affidavit submitted by them and without verifying their antecedents and date of entry to India.
{{/usCountry}}Passed by the parliament on December 11 and notified on January 10, the amended citizenship law fast-tracks citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Jains from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
The rules and guidelines for implementing CAA are yet to be formulated. The Assam government has submitted recommendations on how the legislation is to be implemented in the state, but the exact details are not yet clear.
The HT reported on January 4 that the Union home ministry is yet to frame rules on the amended citizenship law. Senior ministry officials had said on condition of anonymity that defining a process to establish the identity of those that have faced religious persecution is proving to be “difficult”. “We are looking into the issue,” a senior home ministry official had said
Protests seeking repeal of CAA have been taking place across Assam for over a month now. Organisations heading the protests allege that it violates a provision of the Assam Accord of 1985, which stipulated March 25, 1971, as the cut of date for entry of illegal immigrants.
Assam government is maintaining that the total number of applicants seeking citizenship under CAA in Assam would not exceed 5 lakh. Sarma had earlier stated that applications for citizenship under CAA should be received within a time limit of 3-4 months.
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