The BJP leadership in West Bengal, after facing flak over the NRC updation exercise in Assam, is now pitching for the removal of the "six years residence" clause from the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and has urged Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah to look into it.
What is Citizenship Bill?
The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, and grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have illegally migrated into India. The immigrants must have resided in India in the last one year and for at least six years in total to qualify for citizenship.
These people were compelled to seek refuge in India owing to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution in their countries of origin. The Bill has no provision for Muslim sects such as Shia and Ahmediya, whose members face persecution in Pakistan.
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Why does the BJP leadership in West Bengal want to remove the "six years residence" clause?
In order to hit back at TMC's campaign that a person has to wait for six years to get citizenship, the BJP leadership in West Bengal are pitching to remove the "six years residence" clause in the CAB.
"The TMC's campaign that a person has to wait for six years to get citizenship is not going down well with the people," a senior state BJP leader privy to the developments, told PTI.
"Instead of the six years residence clause, there should be a provision to ensure that if someone is coming to the country to save his religion and honour, he or she should just submit an affidavit. There can be procedural verification to find out the real reason and then the person can be accorded citizenship," state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu told PTI.
Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah has already been briefed about the viewpoint of the state unit on the matter, Basu said. "He is positive about it. Let us see what happens. Bengal BJP's viewpoint is that it wants the clause to be removed. It is important at least from the prespective of the state as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has gone all out against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the CAB," Basu added.
The Bengal BJP had said if it comes to power, it will first implement the CAB to give citizenship to refugees and then bring in the NRC to weed out infiltrators.
(Inputs from PTI)
