A citizenship law was passed by the in the lower house, i.e the Lok Sabha in India. The bill proposes to give citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Many opposition parties voiced their descent in the parliament today, while the North Eastern states of India remained shut in protest.
BJP’s ally in Assam too opposed the bill. Soon after the bill was passed in parliament, the BJP President of Assam resigned from all party positions.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will grant Indian nationality to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and entered India before 31st December 2014.
Political parties oppose the law and say it would give citizenship to illegal immigrants. This issue is sensitive to northeast Indian states, where tribals and other ethnic communities wish to keep out the outsiders.
(The Pigeon Express Opinion – The central government has brought in a religious in order to issue citizenship to people, and has very nicely left out the Muslim community. I believe if citizenship is granted it should not look at the person’s religious association. And goes against the term of a “Secular India”.)