Lok Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill

December 10, 2019

The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) was tabled yesterday in the Lok Sabha by Home Minister Amit Shah and was passed by 311 votes. 80 votes were cast against the bill.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted,” I would like to specially applaud Home Minister @AmitShah Ji for lucidly explaining all aspects of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019. He also gave elaborate answers to the various points raised by respective MPs during the discussion in the Lok Sabha.”

While presenting the bill Shah said, “Why do we need this Bill today? After Independence, if Congress had not done partition on the basis of religion, today we would have not needed this Bill.” He also said, “There is no political agenda behind this bill.”

Members of the opposition parties voiced their opposition to the bill when it was being discussed. Many of them cited the Article 14 of the Indian Constitution and claimed that CAB is discriminatory in nature and will cause communal issues in India.

Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi tore a copy of the Bill and said that it will cause a new Partition of the country. “When Constitution’s Preamble was being made, it wasn’t initiated in the name of God. Look at the difference from then and now. Now we are bringing a law,” he said.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, (CAB) aims to change a six-decade-old law that will allow non-Muslim refugees, such as Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to gain Indian citizenship.