Three years after it caused large protests, India is about to enact a contentious citizenship law that extends amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from surrounding countries.

Religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are granted citizenship by the legislation.

The administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims to provide asylum to those escaping religious persecution.

However, some claim that the law is anti-Muslim.

Despite being passed in 2019, the bill was shelved due to widespread demonstrations that resulted in numerous fatalities and numerous arrests.

The statement comes months before general elections in which Mr. Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is running for a third term. The administration has not said when it will take effect.

What is stated in the law?

On December 11, 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was approved by 125 votes to 105 in the upper house of parliament, where the BJP does not hold a majority. Two days ago, it had cleared the lower house.

The 64-year-old Indian Citizenship statute, which presently forbids illegal immigrants from obtaining Indian citizenship, was modified by the CAB.

Foreigners who enter India without a valid passport or travel documentation, or who stay longer than allowed, are considered illegal immigrants, according to this definition. Illegal immigrants may face jail time or deportation.

A clause that states that a person cannot seek for citizenship unless they have worked for the federal government for at least 11 years or have resided in India was also altered by the new bill.

Members of the following six religious minority groups will now be exempt: Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jainites, Parsis, and Hindus, provided they can provide documentation proving they are native to Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. To be eligible for citizenship by naturalization—the process by which a non-citizen obtains the citizenship or nationality of that nation—they need only reside or work in India for six years.

It further stated that those in possession of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards, which allow foreign nationals of Indian descent to reside and work in India permanently, risk having their status revoked if they break both serious and insignificant local laws.

Why is there controversy about the law?

The law's detractors claim that it is discriminatory and goes against the secular values outlined in the constitution. It's been said that citizenship cannot be contingent on one's faith.

The constitution ensures everyone's equality before the law and equal protection under it, and it outlaws discrimination against citizens based on their religion.

Attorney Gautam Bhatia, of Delhi, claimed that the bill "explicitly and blatantly seeks to enshrine religious discrimination into law, contrary to our long-standing, secular constitutional ethos" by classifying putative migrants as Muslims or non-Muslims.

The law is "couched in the language of refuge and seemingly directed at foreigners, but its main purpose is the delegitimization of Muslims' citizenship," according to historian Mukul Kesavan.

Opponents argue that the measure should have included Muslim religious minorities who have experienced persecution in their own countries, such as the Rohingyas in Myanmar and the Ahmadis in Pakistan, if it is truly intended to safeguard minorities.

Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav defended the measure by stating that "no country in the world accepts illegal migration.

Indian citizenship laws exist for everyone else, notwithstanding the complaints of the heartbroken. Those who can legitimately claim Indian citizenship can choose to become naturalized citizens. All other undocumented immigrants will act as spies.

The editorial director of Swarajya magazine, R Jagannathan, defended the bill earlier this year as well, stating that the exclusion of Muslims from the ambit of the bill's coverage flows from the obvious reality that the three countries are Islamist ones, either as stated in their own constitutions, or because of the actions of militant Islamists, who target the minorities for conversion or harassment.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was first introduced in the Indian Parliament in December 2019. It was passed by both houses of Parliament and subsequently received the assent of the President of India, officially becoming law on December 12, 2019. Check out our latest blog and know when was CAA First Introduced.

What is the bill's background?

In July 2016, the legislature was initially presented with the Citizen Amendment Bill.

Following violent anti-immigrant rallies in northeastern India, the legislation passed the lower house of parliament, where the BJP holds a sizable majority. However, it was not approved by the upper house.

In August, two million people in the state of Assam were left off of the citizens' register, prompting very loud protests there. Bangladeshi illegal migration has long been a source of concern for the state.

Though they are not the same, the CAB and the register are said to be connected.

A list of citizens who can demonstrate they arrived in the state by March 24, 1971—one day before nearby Bangladesh gained its independence—is called the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The BJP had backed the NRC in the days leading up to its release, but it reversed course a few days later, claiming the final list was riddled with mistakes.

The reason for that was that many Bengali Hindus, who make up a sizable portion of the BJP's voter base, were omitted from the list and might end up as undocumented immigrants.

How does the bill relate to the citizens' register?

The two are closely related since non-Muslims who are not included in the register and who run the risk of being deported or interned will be better protected by the Citizenship Amendment Bill.

This implies that tens of thousands of Hindu Bengali migrants who were not part of the NRC can still obtain citizenship and remain in the state of Assam.

Later, in an effort to guarantee that each and every infiltrator is identified and expelled from India" by 2024, Home Minister Amit Shah suggested creating a national registry of citizens.

In the event that the government proceeds with its plan to enact the nationwide NRC, individuals who are left out will fall into two categories: Muslims, who will now be considered illegal migrants, and everyone else, who would have been considered illegal migrants but will now be protected by the Citizenship Amendment Bill provided they can prove that they are native to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, or Pakistan Mr. Bhatia stated.

Sociologist Niraja Gopal Jaya stated that the NRC and CAB when combined have the potential of transforming India into a majoritarian polity with gradations of citizenship rights.