(FE)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha today. The bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. According to the Lok Sabha’s List of Business, the Home Minister will table the bill in the afternoon to amend the six-decade-old Citizenship Act. The bill has triggered protests in northeastern states with a large section of people, organisations and opposition parties opposing the bill. They are arguing that it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. Once the bill is cleared by the Parliament, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants. The bill will grant them Indian citizenship.
