CAA Full Form - Citizen Amendment Act

What is the full form of CAA?

The full form of CAA is the “Citizen Amendment Act”. This Bill was first introduced in Lok Sabha on 19th July 2016. It is an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955 to provide citizenship of India to illegal migrants from different religions, such as Hindus, Jains, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists and Sikhs from India’s neighboring countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who entered India on or before 31st December 2014. This Bill got passed in Lok Sabha on 8th January 2019. After that, on 11th December 2019, Rajya Sabha also passed the Bill. This act was widely criticized as discrimination on the basis of religion. This led to various protests such as CAA Protests, CAB(Citizenship Amendment Bill) Protests and CAA and NRC(National Register of Citizens) Protests.

Difference between CAA and NRC

• NRC is an official record of citizens of India, whereas CAA is for illegal migrants living in India.

• NRC is only applicable to Assam as of now, whereas CAA is applicable to the whole country.

• NRC is not based on religion, whereas CAA mentioned providing citizenship to illegal migrants of six religions.

Issues with CAA

• This act left out Jews and atheists.

• This act does not mention illegal migrants from other neighboring countries of India, such as Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.

• The reason behind the time frame chosen in this act is not given.

• The focus is only on religious persecution because it does not mention the Muslim religion along with the other six religions and which led to many protests.

Conclusion

CAA is to amend the definition of illegal migrants according to the Citizenship Act of 1955. As per the Citizenship Act of 1955, citizenship can be granted under five reasons which are- By descent, By birth, By registration, By naturalization and By annexation but according to CAA it is applicable to persecuted minorities belonging to six mentioned religions. Muslim religion was not described among the six religions and many protests outbursts as a result.

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