Why the common Indian need not worry about CAA or NRC?
Why the common peace-loving Citizen of India & Bharat does not need to worry about CAA or about NRC .
Many people have hijacked this issue & turned it into a communal issue for vote bank politics.
Let’s learn about our citizenship laws & how you don’t need to worry.
If a person was born in India after 26th Jan 1950 & before 1st July 1987 have acquired citizenship by birth.
It covers most our parents for us in our 20s.
Therefore most of the youth today born before 2003 are automatically citizens by birth including JamiaProtest students.
So what happens to children born after 2003?
They’re all citizens by descent born to fathers who are Indian citizens.
It even covers children born outside of the country who can register their births at Indian consulates.
The overlapping in dates guarantees your citizenship.
Many on social media have been trying to link Citizenship Amendment Act & NRC .
First let’s get to NRC.
Its a legislation passed in 2003 !
17 years back.
Congress had the time to amend it or repeal it but they didn’t.
Let’s delve deeper into the NRC which is the next logical step from Aadhar.
The rules are an attempt to make a database of Indian citizens to regulate voting rights & help in distribution of subsidies & aid to ONLY citizens.
The births and deaths have been extensively recorded in our country & the census one of the finest.
99% will not face issues.
This is the data you will need to provide to enroll in the #NRC .
NOTE: It does not include any religion.
It maybe a precursor to Uniform Civil Code and most of this data has already been collected under Aadhar.
One might say Aadhar was the beta test of #NRC
In a huge country with a billion plus population even a 10% error would be a huge disaster.
Thus the rules provide for two stages of appeals.
One to the District Registrar of Citizenship & then Registrar General of citizenship.
After that use FR under Art. 226/32
So will everyone have to line up in QUEUES to prove their citizenship?
THAT’S OUTRAGEOUS.
In reality, a Census officer or govt servant will visit your house to collect the details about the whole family & children & elderly & the disabled.
The list of documents for nation-wide NRC have not been announced yet.
List A includes documents either in your name or your ancestors name.
Birth certificate/University records/birth certificate/Passport/Land records/LIC/bank account.
Quite easy to procure these days.
Here’s the List B document needed if the List A document belonged to your ancestor and not directly in your name.
The usual suspects with the addition of Voter IDs & Ration Cards
So now when the fears have subsided I’m sure some of you are wondering
what’s the cost of NRC & should we be spending money on it at this moment in time?
The field work on it had already started in 2010.
It’s related to the census in many ways
The Registrar General of Citizenship has been functional since 2010 in Congress Regime & another new notification was passed 2015.
These CAA Protests are a decade late.
NRC & CAA are not even remotely linked.
NRC was also supposedly conducted in the coastal areas of many states in 2010 including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, TN, Andaman etc.
The first step in securing the coastlines of India after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Where were the CAA Protests then?
This obscure page still left on the Census India website clearly shows that NRC data was collected in the 2010-2011 Census.
The ones opposing the NRC for communal vote bank politics have facilitated it & funded it a decade back.
The next Census in India will happen in the year 2021.
As per the published schedule it will be a Census where the religion of the person will not be recorded.
All other censuses before have recorded religions but not this one.
Let’s take pride in our Indian Citizenship & endeavour to protect it.
NRC is for the benefit of all citizens.
The National Identity Card will help immensely in distribution of subsidies & aid & preventing corruption.
Only citizens will be eligible to get benefit from govt
CAA is an amendment to the existing law of citizenship by registration which removes certain impediments & expedites the process of granting citizenship.
Minority refugees facing persecution on the basis of religion in 3 neighbouring countries who came before 2014.
All existing citizens of India of all religions & ethnicities are already citizens by birth/descent u/s 3-5 of the Citizenship Act.
CAA2019 ONLY adds new sections without amending the existing law.
1st it excludes certain minorities from the definition of illegal migrant.
Illegal migrants cannot apply for citizenship under the existing law.
CAA2019 removes this impediment will be removed for minorities facing religious persecution in 3 neighbouring countries.
A proviso is also added for the protected areas of North Eastern States.
Does this mean no Muslim foreigner can become a citizen of India?
WRONG.
A Muslim can come to India with a valid visa can gain citizenship by naturalization after fulfilling various conditions given in the Third Schedule or be exemplary like Adnan Sami & others.
ONLY TWO things being given to refugees facing religious persecution.
a) Opportunity to apply for citizenship by Naturalisation if they came to India before 2014.
b) Change of Naturalisation period to 5 years from 11 years.
CAA2019 doesn’t affect INDIAN CITIZENS
CAA2019 doesn’t affect the citizenship rights of INDIANS.
So what exactly is the Protests for?
Are we so insecure in our belief in this country and our constitution that a few thousand persecuted refugees being given citizenship is a threat to it?
Pan-India NRC is a reality we have to face in 2021.
It will be both economical & logical to conduct Pan-India NRC in 2021 when the census happens.
The planning for the Census 2021 has already started with appointment of officers & making of maps.
Forgot the most obvious and First form of citizenship.
Every person who was domiciled in India or one of whose parents were born in India at the commencement of the constitution became citizen of India by virtue of Article 5 of the Constitution of India.
99.9% of Hindu/Sikh/etc will not be able to take benefit of CAA2019 IF they are declared foreigners.
They will have to PROVE they came from Pak/Bangladesh/Afg before 2014 to take benefit of CAA2019 via some docs.
The amendment applies to refugees ALREADY here before 2014.
Hope this helps our fellow Indians in understanding NRC and CAA.
JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT!