question_answer

Exactly three months ago, on December 11, India'’s parliament passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. This, for the first time, introduced a religious element to India’'s citizenship law. The legislation allowed so-called illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to apply for Indian citizenship - as long as they were not Muslim.

This law was even more controversial given the fact that leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party said that it would work in tandem with a proposed National Register of Indian Citizens. By linking the two, the BJP intended to convey that only Muslims would be targeted by an NRC.

The Citizenship Amendment Act sparked off massive protests, international condemnation and large-scale chaos. Yet, the BJP has been steadfast in that it will not roll back the law. Despite being so adamant, three months after the act was passed, the Modi government is yet to begin the process of implementing the legislation on the ground. The rules to the CAA - guidelines on how the legislation will be implemented - are yet to be notified by the Union government.

What explains this delay for a law so core to the BJP’'s current politics?

The CAA catalysed fears amongst Muslims that they could be rendered stateless using an NRC, leading to massive protests. This, in turn, prompted often-brutal crackdowns by BJP-led state governments. In one case, threats by a BJP leader to violently uproot protestors in Delhi were a major factor in sparking of widespread communal rioting and attacks by the police on Muslim neighbourhoods.

In the three months since the act was passed by parliament, 80 people have died: two in Karnataka, six in Assam, 19 in Uttar Pradesh, and 53 in Delhi.

One simple reason for the delay in framing the rules therefore could be that the Modi government is wary of further fanning protests.

A similar process has already occurred in the case of the NRC. Till before the protests started, the BJP volubly stated that an NRC was going to be conducted. However, after the protests, the party suddenly changed its public position, claiming that "“nowhere has the NRC word been discussed or been talked about"”. (Notably however, this has still meant the BJP is proceeding with the National Population Register, a door-to-door survey that collects data for an NRC.)

The other difficulty when it comes to framing the rules for the CAA is the self-contradictory nature of the law itself. The act is so unusually framed that experts have argued the legislation would fail to help many migrants gain Indian citizenship.

A scenario where the CAA is operationalised but very few migrants apply for citizenship under it would greatly embarrass the BJP. The party would have upturned India in pursuit of its stated aim of helping non-Muslim migrants - except that the CAA would not have helped them. This could, thus, be a significant factor in the delay in framing rules.

Which of the following is true about December 11?

A) There was an attack on Parliament.

B) CAA was passed in the parliament

C) Both (a) and (b)

D) Neither (a) nor (b)