The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was tabled in the parliament earlier today by Amit Shah and that led to a massive debate and uproar. The opposition parties including Congress, TMC and other parties have said that the bill is against the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution, forgetting, that those rights apply only to citizens of India and thus, while it applies to every citizen, it does not apply to say Rohingyas or Pakistani Muslims who are not being given citizenship under the bill.
After the massive furore where AIMIM chief Owaisi even compared the Home Minister to Hitler, Amit Shah presented his counter-arguments. Here are the key statements made by Amit Shah in the parliament after the Citizenship Amendment Bill was tabled and the opposition parties rallied against it tooth and nail.
The Legal Basis for the Bill – Does it violate sections of the constitution?
Home Minister Amit Shah said that he wants to assure the members of the parliament and even the citizens of the country that the Citizenship Amendment Bill does not violate any of the provisions of the constitution. Speaking about Article 11, Amit Shah asked the members of the parliament to read the article in its totality since Article 11 says, “Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship”.
On Article 14 being violated by CAB, Amit Shah read out the article. Article 14 essentially speaks about equality before the law or equal protection within the territory of India. Article 14 of the Constitution of India provides for equality before the law or equal protection within the territory of India. The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or equal protection of law within the territory of India. However, Amit Shah pointed out that citizenship has been granted in view of special circumstances in the past to specific communities, specifically to Bangladeshi refugees after 1971 and following the attacks on Indians in Uganda by using the provision of reasonable classifications.
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The Country was partitioned on the basis of Religion
Most significantly, Home Minister Amit Shah reminded the opposition leaders that the country was partitioned on the basis of religion. “Why do we need this Bill today? After independence, had Congress not done a partition on the basis of religion, then, today we would have not needed this Bill. Congress did the partition on the basis of religion,” Amit Shah said.
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Voted in Favour of Introduction of the Bill
After an intense debate on the legal and constitutional merits of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the Lok Sabha has voted in favour of the introduction of the bill in the parliament. The proposal to introduce the bill in the parliament passed with 293 members of Lok Sabha voting Aye and 82 members voting No. Home Minister Amit Shah then proceeded to introduce the Bill in the Parliament.