Published 16:46 IST, December 15th 2019
Jitendra Singh holds Cong responsible for violence, asserts CAA is a 'subject of Centre'
MoS PMO Jitendra Singh on Sunday alleged that Congress was responsible for the incidents of violence over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
On Sunday, Dr.Jitendra Singh- the Minister of State Prime Minister’s Office alleged that Congress was responsible for the incidents of violence over the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Maintaining that the situation was comparatively better than before, he opined that some elements were taking advantage of the situation for political gain. On states refusing to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, Dr.Singh said that it was not under the states prerogative.
President gives assent
The CAA seeks to provide citizenship to the minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This will be applicable to the members of these communities having arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014. Moreover, they will not be considered as illegal migrants. Additionally, the mandatory residence period for naturalised citizenship for these communities would be reduced to 5 years. Several parties in the North East such as the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have been vehemently opposed to this legislation. To ameliorate their concerns, the Centre has exempted a major part of the North East from the ambit of the Act. The opposition contends that the Act discriminates on the basis of religion, which might go against Article 14, which guarantees the right to equality. While the Lower House of the Parliament cleared the Bill just after midnight on Monday, the Rajya Sabha passed it two days later. It came into force after the President gave his assent to the Bill. Many states such as West Bengal and Kerala have opposed the implementation of CAA.
Updated 17:50 IST, December 15th 2019