The Modi government on Friday announced that the historic Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has come into force from January 10, 2020.
In a gazette notification, the Union home ministry said the Act under which persecuted minorities belonging to six non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given Indian citizenship, will come into force from January 10.
However, the usual suspects began to spread false propaganda and indulge in fear-mongering as the centre announced that the CAA came into force.
Bollywood entertainer Anurag Kashyap, who has a history of arrogant behaviour and peddling fake news, yet again took to social media on Friday to abuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spread misinformation regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act.
A desperate and abusive, Anurag Kashyap resorted to attacking PM Modi personally by dragging his family. Kashyap asked not only asked PM Modi to show his paper and degree certificate but asked the Prime Minister to show documents related to his father and other members of the family.
आज CAA लागू हो गया । मोदी को बोलो पहले अपने काग़ज़ , अपनी डिग्री इन “entire political science” दिखाए , और अपने बाप का और ख़ानदान का birth सर्टिफ़िकेट दिखाए सारे हिंदुस्तान को। फिर हमसे माँगे । #fuckCAA
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) January 10, 2020
Shockingly, Anurag Kashyap, in a hurry to foul mouth PM Modi and the BJP, resorted to a misinformation campaign against the CAA. Through his tweet, Kashyap went on to imply that citizens of the country needed to submit documents to prove their citizenship after the CAA is notified.
However, in reality, no Indian citizen will be asked to submit any documents or prove his citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act as claimed by Anurag Kashyap. The law has been brought to provide citizenship to persecuted people in neighbouring three countries rather than taking away citizenship of any particular group.
Read- Intellectuals against Citizenship Amendment Act: The art of lying and use of muscle power
It can be categorically said that the Citizenship Amendment Act does not affect any citizen of the country, as the amendment has absolutely nothing to do with existing citizens of India.
Joining the bandwagon, Menaka Guruswamy, despite claiming to be a Supreme Court advocate, also indulged in fake propaganda as she claimed that the CAA is discriminatory. According to Menaka, the law will discriminate on religion and opined that it was not India that the Constitution envisages.
Citizenship Amendment Act was bought into force today, January 10, 2020. We will discriminate on religion re. citizenship. This is not the India the Constitution envisages. pic.twitter.com/deoRnDMItn
— Menaka Guruswamy (@MenakaGuruswamy) January 10, 2020
Through her tweet, Menaka Guruswamy actually intends that the law leaves out Muslims and this according to her tantamounts to discrimination. However, Menaka fails to prove on what grounds that the Citizenship Amendment Act is discriminatory to any citizen of the country.
Her claims that the law is not in coherence with the Constitution also falls flat as the constitution of India is for citizens of India, and the CAA is a special provision for people who are not citizens of India. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that CAA violates the constitution.
In addition to that, our constitution and laws already have several discriminatory provisions. We do not have equal law for every citizen, the constitution allows different laws for different religions in several matters. Article 14, which promised equality before the law also provides for reasonable classification and any potential violation of 14 can be justified until the classification is reasonable.
Audrey Truschke, a self-proclaimed Historian and pro-Islamist propagandist tried to interfere in India’s internal affairs by calling the historic legislation as discriminatory which allegedly deny many Muslims to be an Indian citizen.
The Indian government announced that from today, 10 Jan 2020, the #CitizenshipAmendmentAct, an openly discriminatory bill that will deny many Muslims of Indian citizenship, is in effect. A few thoughts on that. https://t.co/XI9pbTR3vl
— Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) January 10, 2020
The claims made by Truschke is an outright lie as the Citizenship Amendment Act is a law which grants citizenship to the minorities who are persecuted in the three neighbouring countries which are Muslim majority countries. Further, the law provides citizenship to those persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries who are already residing in India before December 31, 2014.
Further, CAA is a special one-time measure for the religious minorities who have already come to India after facing persecution in the three specified countries. The amendment does not cancel the existing naturalisation laws.
Any person from any foreign country seeking to be Indian citizen can apply for the same under the existing laws. There is no bar on Muslims from anywhere in the world to seek Indian citizenship under existing laws, CAA does not prohibit that. They can apply for Indian citizenship under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, which deals with citizenship by naturalization.
The Citizenship Amendment Act is a law passed by the Parliament of India which gives citizenship to those persecuted minorities belonging to six non-Muslim religion from three neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In fact, there are no provisions in the entire legislation which either demands any Indian to prove their citizenship or submit their documents. Addition to this, the objective of the legislation is to grant citizenship to persecuted people and not to take away the citizenship of any particular group of Indian citizens, especially Muslims.
