Is CAA against the spirit of the Indian Constitution? What are the social and economic ramifications?

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“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world….would do this, it would change the earth.”

The tsunami of protests across the length and breadth of the country s because of a single reason Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). What is it? Why people are protesting? Is it violating the spirit of the Indian Constitution?

The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019(CAA) is an act, passed by the Parliament of India, which amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant a swifter path to Indian Citizenship under the assumption of religious persecution to any individual belonging to the specific minorities of Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, Parsis refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh who sought refuge in India before 31 December 2014. It is so helpful then why people are protesting? The Amendment leaves out or does not include Muslims and others from these countries as well as Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, Rohingyas from Myanmar, and Buddhist refugees from Tibet, so it is violating the spirit of the Indian Constitution that is preamble which states that India is a secular country and there must be no discrimination on any basis and by excluding the Muslim community it is discriminating on the basis of religion. Now let us see what the political leaders have said about it.

Let us start with our respected Prime Minister “Narendra Damodardas Modi” he said, “Citizenship Amendment legislation is not for any citizen- Hindu or Muslim. This was said in parliament and false statements are not allowed in the parliament. This law has nothing to do with 130 crore people who stay in this country.”

“Rahul Gandhi”   on 10 December 2019 gave a statement on Twitter “The CAB is an attack on the Indian Constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation. So, what are the economic ramifications of CAA let us analyze it?

Firstly, CAA is not an economic policy. It makes it easier to become a citizen- of course, it is not an economic policy, but in several cities switching of the Internet disrupt production for at least a few days and different issues like this has dented the Indian Economy and the economic growth has been slowed, and by the huge protest in the country the tourism has also slowed down in the country as 7 countries issue travel warning and about 200,000 domestic, international tourists canceled or postponed their trip to the Taj Mahal in the past two weeks. There has been a 60% decline in visitor footfalls in December 2019. Let us see what are the issues in CAA.

1. The fundamental criticism of the Bill has been that it specifically targets Muslims.

2. Critics argue that it is violative of Article 14 of the constitution, which guarantees the right to equality.

3. The government, however, maintains that the Bill aims to grant citizenship to minorities who have faced religious persecution in Muslim majority foreign countries.

4. The northeastern states are against the Bill as they believe it will lead to a great influx of illegal migrants.

5. In the northeastern states, the prospect of citizenship for massive numbers of illegal Bangladeshi migrants has triggered deep anxieties, including fears of demographic change, loss of livelihood opportunities, and erosion of the indigenous culture.

The CAA has been challenged in the Supreme court of India by many organization and states, many states have also passed an ordinance to not to implement CAA on their state now we just have to wait and see what turns it may take what will the Supreme court say about this. So by this, I came to an end to let us observe what is going to happen. “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

-ARPIT SAMANT

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