The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam s Barak valley has been met with indifferent responses from intending applicants, who are more concerned about getting their names cleared from the foreigner s tribunal and abolition of detention camps. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, was implemented in March to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
Activist Kamal Chakraborty said that most among those declared foreigners end up voting for ruling parties hoping that they ll be accepted as Indians in return. | Latest News India
The ruling BJP’s entire citizenship project remains vague but Assam’s experience is an indication of how the system will gamed to fulfil a grand objective.
Citizenship The Supreme Court sets aside the ex-parte order of the Foreigners Tribunal which declared a woman non-indian. Rashida Begum @ Rashida Khatun v. Union of India, 2023 LiveLaw (SC) 85 .
The weaponisation of the citizenship law in Assam points to how the new rules are likely to be arbitrarily implemented to fit the BJP’s political agenda.