Citizenship Bill (CAB) causes huge furore in Parliament: Here's who's for & who's against

Union Home Minister Amit Shah tabled the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday, following a huge debate in the house, following which a vote was held squarely over whether or not it should be tabled. The Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there. The Bill is contentious and has triggered protests in northeastern states with a large section of people and organisations opposing.

Here are the parties who are opposing the CAB and who are in favour of it.

BJP to get the support of its regional allies

The Bill has been mainly opposed by the Congress and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Other parties which have opposed the bill are the Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM, DMK, Samajwadi Party, RJD, PDP and Left, and even regional parties like BJD have expressed reservations. BJP's Assam ally AGP seems like they will support the contentious bill after the government assured changes to the Bill. The BJP government is likely to get the support of regional allies — Akali Dal and JD(U). AIADMK, meanwhile, is likely to take a cautious approach before clarifying its stand on the Bill. Parties like AAP and TRS have not announced their position on the re-drafted bill. 

Shiv Sena demands 'No voting rights to refugees for 25 years'

BJP's former ally Shiv Sena has decided to back the Bill but it has put forth a few conditions. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday has demanded an amendment to the current draft which is tabled in the Lok Sabha  Amit Shah. While speaking to Republic TV exclusively on Monday, slamming vote-bank politics, he said that the refugees who enter through the Citizenship Bill must not be given voting rights for 25 years. He said that by that stipulated time, the accusation of vote bank politics will die down.

Citizenship Amendment Bill- BJP's poll promise

The Bill was an election promise of the BJP in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-led NDA government had introduced the Bill in its previous tenure and got the Lok Sabha's approval. But it did not introduce it in the Rajya Sabha, apparently due to vehement protests in the Northeast. That Bill lapsed following the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.

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READ | Shiv Sena demands 'No voting rights to refugees for 25 years' ahead of CAB tabling

What is the CAB?

First introduced in the Lok Sabha in July 2016, the bill was finally passed by the Lok Sabha in January 2019. Protests, which first sprung in 2016, have already reportedly sprung around Assam this week led by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), which has stated that the will not be accepted by people. The Citizenship Amendment Bill amends the Citizenship Act 1955 to make refugees who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, eligible for citizenship.

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