Hyderabad: Ever since the parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019, many people claim that it is linked to the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Supporters of the CAA claim that it is nowhere related to NRC whereas, the group that is against the act alleged that CAA is the backdoor for non-Muslims.
On Wednesday, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat, who is on a three-day visit to Assam, said that the CAA and NRC would not harm the Muslims in any way.
He said the CAA and the NRC have nothing to do with a Hindu-Muslim divide and a communal narrative around these issues is being spread by a section of people to for their political ends.
Reacting to the statement, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted, ” CAA keeps backdoor for non-Muslims excluded from NRC but leaves Muslims out. It serves no other purpose”.
Expressing his views against giving citizenship on the basis of religion, he tweeted, “Any law that gives citizenship on the basis of religion is unacceptable”. “Bhagwat’s word isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”, he added.
What is CAA?
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, an amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955, aims to give citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014 from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Many sections of society said that the CAA 2019 for the first time introduced a provision of providing citizenship based on religions.
NRC
The aim of the NRC that was implemented in Assam was to identify illegal immigrants in India. Lakhs of people were excluded from the final. In the process, the cutoff date for Assam was March 24, 1971.
Anxiety increased among various sections of the society after the government made amendments to the citizenship law. Anti-CAA protests were also held across India before the outbreak of the pandemic.