Movie Murmur

The amendment to the Indian Citizenship Act 2019 lets minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become Indian citizens. While justifying the Indian Citizenship amendment Act, it is often sad that the three countries are theocratic states and that because it is so it is assumed that the 'minorities' are persecuted. This assumption might be flawed. The "honorable" theoretical assumption that the Constitution of Bangladesh does not treat all religions equally on effect of the state having its own stated religion is far from truth. Clause 2A of the Constitution of Bangladesh states: The state religion of the Republic is Islam, but the State shall ensure equal status and equal right in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions. Further Part 2, Section 12 is on Secularism and freedom of religion. I t states: The principle of secularism shall be realised by the elimination of - (a) communalism in all its forms ; (b) t

On an apparent level CAA seems to be independent. It wants convert Hindu, Parsi, Christian, Buddhist and Jain (and not others) illegal immigrants / refugees from the Islamic states of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan into Indian citizens with a 2014 cut off date. The National Population Register (NPR) is a list of usual residents in India (people who have been residing in India for six months or those who have intention of staying). The National Register of Citizenship (NRC) is a list of all citizens of India. The law says that to have the NRC, the basis of it will be NPR. In the process of making NPR / NRC there will be lakhs of names that will not get into the list because of name mismatch, lack of documents etc. rendering genuine citizens of India nation less. I would assume the CAA would facilitate the hand picked Hindu, Parsi, Christian, Buddhist and Jain (and not other) settlers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan among those identified as foreigners, to become I

Article 14 of the Indian Constitution deals with equality before law. It states " The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth ." This does not mean that a classification or division cannot be made amongst the people in the process of making any law. We can, for example, make a law for only for the Hindus, like the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) Act and make it not applicable to a Christian. Article 14 does not allow what is called 'Class legislation' - which means that you cannot apply the HUF Act to all Hindus who are having five children and not otherwise. While presenting the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Loka Sabha, Home Minister declared that the classification or distinction made amongst the people for the purpose of the bill is - paraphrasing him - "Religiously persecu