Delhi riots: Iran asks India to bring peace, not allow ‘senseless thuggery’

India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that law enforcement agencies were working on the ground

In the wake of riots in Delhi, in which 48 people lost their lives, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday condemned the organised violence against Indian Muslims in the national capital. He said the senseless thuggery should not prevail and peaceful dialogue should take place. “Iran condemns the wave of organised violence against Indian Muslims. For centuries, Iran has been a friend of India. We urge Indian authorities to ensure the wellbeing of ALL Indians & not let senseless thuggery prevail. Path forward lies in peaceful dialogue and rule of law,” Zarif tweeted.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that law enforcement agencies were working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy. Kumar has urged international bodies not to make irresponsible statements at this sensitive time.

“Iran condemns the wave of organised violence against Indian Muslims. For centuries, Iran has been a friend of India. We urge Indian authorities to ensure the wellbeing of ALL Indians & not let senseless thuggery prevail. Path forward lies in peaceful dialogue and rule of law,” Zarif tweeted. Earlier, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan had condemned the violence against Muslims in Delhi. Frenzied mobs have torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at police personnel. Several arrests have been made.

After CAA, Centre might bring population control law: MoS Niranjan Jyoti

She said she believes that this issue is under the prime minister’s consideration and he himself has discussed the importance of bringing this law

Union Minister of state Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Sunday said after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the Centre might bring a population control law. Jyoti claimed that she has already spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard. She said she believes that this issue is under the prime minister’s consideration and he himself has discussed the importance of bringing this law.

Jyoti arrived here on Sunday to attend a tribute meeting held at Swami Vamdev Jyotirmath in Chaitanya Vihar. Unnao MP Sakshi Maharaj was also present at the event. “There was a time when abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was impossible. It was feared that if such thing happens, there will be bloodbath. No one will be hold the national flag in Kashmir. But this government can bring any law in favour of the nation,” Jyoti said. “Now, everyone believes that if Article 370 can be removed…Prime Minister Narendra Modi can bring any law which is important for the country,” she added…

UP cops arrest Dr Kafeel Khan from Mumbai airport for ‘inflammatory’ speech

The official also alleged that the Gorakhpur doctor had made objectionable comments against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested Dr Kafeel Khan from Mumbai airport for allegedly making inflammatory statements at AMU during protests against the Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA) last month, officials said. Khan was arrested on Wednesday night with assistance from Mumbai Police at the airport when he arrived in the city to attend anti-CAA protests, an official said.

“Officials of the UP STF arrested Dr Kafeel Khan in a case which was registered at Civil Lines Police Station under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC. Our police team helped our UP counterparts on their request,” said an official from Mumbai Police. He claimed that Khan had made inflammatory statements on December 12 last year during the protest near Bab e Syed Gate outside the Aligarh Muslim University in front of more than 600 students.

The official also alleged that the Gorakhpur doctor had made objectionable comments against Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The FIR against Khan mentions that Swaraj India’s president Yogendra Yadav was also present during the speech at AMU. Following the arrest in the case, Khan was taken to the Sahar Police Station and after completing formalities he will be taken to UP on transit remand, the official said…

Grilled on CAA at WEF, Goyal says Muslims in India safer than anywhere else

Defending the new citizenship amendment law, Goyal also said, ‘India has a duty to protect people who are sufferers of religious persecution’

Union minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said Muslims in India are safer than most places in the world. “India is probably one of the most inclusive societies in the world,” Goyal said here at a session on ‘Strategic Outlook: India’ at the WEF 2020. “India is a country which welcomes all diverse viewpoints, all diverse opinions, the Muslims in India are safer than any other part of the world in terms of equal opportunity,” he stressed. He further noted that there is absolutely no discrimination in any of the government programmes.

“When we take electricity to every home we do not ask them their colour or their religion, when we take toilets, digital tech, bank accounts, cooking gas to every home we do not ask their religion. All our programmes are equal for all,” the minister said. Defending the new citizenship amendment Act, Goyal also said, “India has a duty to protect people who are sufferers of religious persecution.”

The minister for Railways as well as Commerce and Industry, said India is a land that has the power of democracy, demography, leadership, talent, culminating in the “power of opportunity.” “Citizenship is an area that every country protects, that every country has the rules of the game, every country has citizenship laws that are respected by the world,” he said. He further said there are about 57 odd islamic countries in the world and except for one or two, every country respects that what India is doing is for the welfare of the people of India, across all religion” he said…

As SC starts CAA hearings, Congress looks to broad base protests to economy

It would get difficult for Congress to champion the cause of anti-CAA protesters if the apex court were to find the controversial law constitutional

As protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rage across the country, Congress is increasingly feeling the need to broad-base them to encompass issues of economic slowdown, joblessness, inflation and farm distress.

On January 28, days ahead of the Union Budget, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address a public meeting in Jaipur. The focus of his speech would be unemployment and inflation. This will be the first of several such meetings he will address across the country, party sources said. The former Congress president is also likely to address a rally in Madhya Pradesh, where he will focus on issues confronting the farmers, tribals and rural workers. Further, he is likely to address a meeting of small and medium industrialists, traders and professionals at Mumbai. Interestingly, the party is yet to schedule any meeting in Delhi, which will vote to elect its new Assembly on February 8.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will start hearing over a hundred petitions challenging Citizenship Amendment Act as unconstitutional from Wednesday. Congress strategists, and those of other opposition parties, understand it would get difficult for them to champion the cause of anti-CAA protesters if the apex court were to find the controversial law constitutional. They are uneasy that such a situation might trigger further protests, and with mainstream political parties unable to stand with the protesters, radical elements could take over the protests.

The issue of the National Population Register (NPR) is similarly vexed. The Congress-led state governments, and those of other opposition parties, cannot afford to flout the Centre’s notification to conduct the NPR. If they do, these state governments could run the risk of getting sacked.

Back immigration or risk missing out on tech boom: Microsoft CEO Nadella

“…people will only come when people know you’re an immigrant friendly country.”, Nadella said.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said he worries that mistrust between the US and China will increase technology costs and hurt economic growth at a critical time. Using the $470 billion semiconductor industry as an example of a sector that is already globally interconnected, Nadella said the two countries will have to find ways to work together, rather than creating different supply chains for each country.

“All you are doing is increasing transaction costs for everybody if you completely separate,” Satya Nadella said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead conference in Davos. That’s a concern as the executive said the world is on the cusp of a revolution around technology and artificial intelligence. “If we take steps back in trust or increase transaction costs around technology, all we are doing is sacrificing global economic growth,” he said.

The Trump administration is considering steps to further limit the ability of US companies to supply Huawei Technologies, China’s flagship tech company, in addition to pressuring countries around the world to avoid using its equipment for 5G mobile networks.The agreement signed last week between the US and China was “not sufficient,” said Nadella. Yet, he represented “progress” on the issue of intellectual property protections for US technology companies working with China…

Punjab set to move resolution in state assembly seeking repeal of CAA

A minister would move a resolution on the second day of the two-day special session of the Assembly urging the Centre to repeal the Act, the sources said

The ruling Congress in Punjab is all set to bring a resolution in the state assembly on Friday demanding scrapping of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, official sources said. A minister would move a resolution on the second day of the two-day special session of the Assembly urging the Centre to repeal the Act, the sources said.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Thursday not ruled out the possibility of bringing a resolution against the amended citizenship law. “Wait till tomorrow,” Singh had said when asked by reporters if the government will bring in a resolution, on the lines of Kerala, against the Act. The state Congress government had on Tuesday said it will proceed according to the “will of the House” on the issue of CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

Singh had recently said his government would not allow the implementation of the “brazenly divisive CAA”.After a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, his colleagues in the ministry had expressed concern over the implications of the “blatantly unconstitutional and divisive CAA, NRC and NPR.” “The ministers were of the view that the matter was bound to be raised during the two-day session of the assembly on January 16-17 and it was unanimously decided that the government should accept the will of the House,” an official statement had said.

Police baton-charge JNU students, HRD ministry refuses removal of V-C

SC refuses urgent hearing on plea to declare CAA constitutional

The Delhi Police on Thursday evening resorted to a baton charge to disperse hundreds of students who had gathered in the heart of the capital to demand the sacking of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar, reduction in fees, and arrests of perpetrators of violence in the university campus. The police have not made any arrests yet in Sunday night’s violence by masked goons inside the JNU campus.

Protesting students and teachers received a shot in the arm from an unlikely source with veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, the minister for human resource development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, demanding that the JNU V-C be sacked. Joshi tweeted: “It is shocking that the V-C is adamant for not implementing the government proposal.

This attitude is deplorable and in my opinion such a V-C should not be allowed to continue in this post.” Thousands of students, including those associated with students’ organisations of the Congress and Left parties, marched from Mandi House to Shastri Bhavan to meet Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry officials. HRD Secretary Amit Khare said officials would talk to Kumar again on Friday over the students’ claims of revised fee not being implemented. “The removal of the vice chancellor is not a solution,” he said…

Amit Shah says protests against CAA political, blames Congress leaders

Home Minister Amit Shah says the CAA provides for granting citizenship to refugees from the three countries.

Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are “mostly political” and insisted that no Indian will lose her nationality because of the legislation.

Shah also challenged Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to show one clause in the CAA under which anyone is going to lose Indian citizenship. “I agree that these are mostly political protests. Some people are also misguided but we are trying to convince them,” he told ABP News. The Home Minister said under the CAA, the government wants to give citizenship to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. “I want to say clearly that there is no provision in the CAA in which one can lose citizenship,” he said.

Shah said the CAA provides for granting citizenship bill to refugees from the three countries. “I say with full firmness that these refugee brothers who have come to India belong to us and it is the responsibility of the government of India to give them a respectable place in India,” he said.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but be given Indian citizenship. The Home Minister said the Census 2021 and the National Population Register (NPR), which government plans to conduct along with the house-listing phase of census from April to September 2020, have nothing to do with the National Register of Citizens (NRC)...

Protest against Pakistan’s atrocities on minorities: Modi to CAA protesters

He likewise said the street has been cleared for the development of an excellent Ram mandir at Lord Ram’s origination with harmony and participation of everybody.

Attacking Congress and its partners for restricting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the fights were against the Parliament and approached the fomenters to speak more loudly against Pakistan’s barbarities on its minorities throughout the previous 70 years.

“The individuals who are challenging the Parliament of India, I need to disclose to them that the need was to uncover Pakistan’s deeds on the world stage. On the off chance that you need to dissent, dissent and speak more loudly against Pakistan’s deeds throughout the previous 70 years, you ought to have that guts,” he said.

Tending to a social affair at Siddaganga Math, he stated, “On the off chance that you need to yell mottos, yell against the manner by which abominations are occurring against minorities there; in the event that you need to hold rallies, hold it for Dalits and discouraged who have originated from Pakistan (to India). On the off chance that you need to do dharna, carry out it against Pakistans things.”

There is change in India’s approach against psychological warfare, Modi stated, by revoking Article 370, exertion has been made to evacuate dread of fear and vulnerability from the life of individuals there and a fresh start of improvement has been introduced both in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. He likewise said the street has been cleared for the development of a stupendous Ram mandir at Lord Ram’s origination with harmony and collaboration of everybody…Read More

Citizenship Act or NRC has nothing to do with Indian Muslims, says PM Modi

Act about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbours, says Modi

Accusing the Opposition of pursuing “divide and rule politics” and stoking violence over the amended citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that the legislation and the National Register of Citizen (NRC) had nothing to do with Indian Muslims, as he sought to assuage their concerns amid widespread protests.

Strongly defending the contentious law, he said at a rally it was about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries and did not snatch anybody’s rights, as he made an appeal for peace. On the NRC, Modi sought to allay apprehensions, especially among Muslims, saying his government has never discussed it since coming to power for the first time in 2014.

It has been discussed neither in Parliament nor in the Cabinet, he added. “Since my government first came to power in 2014, I want to tell 130 crore countrymen, there has never been a discussion on this NRC,” he said, noting that it was done only in Assam due to a Supreme Court order. He cited a Hindi idiom to liken the apprehensions about the NRC in a section of society to somebody getting scared after being told that a crow has cut his ears.

“Congress and its friends have been shouting that see the crow has flown after cutting your ear. And some people began chasing the crow. They should first check if the crow has cut their ears or not…. First you find out if anything has been done on the NRC,” he said. Several Union ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, have often pitched for a nationwide National Register of Citizens exercise, with Shah telling Parliament recently that it will be carried out…Read More

Mobile internet, SMS remain shut in Lucknow, parts of UP amid anti-CAA stir

Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi had Thursday night issued an order to suspend the services till Saturday noon

Mobile internet and text messaging services of all telecom operators remained suspended in Lucknow and some other parts of Uttar Pradesh on Friday in view of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. In Lucknow, the suspension was announced on Thursday. Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi had Thursday night issued an order to suspend the services till Saturday noon.

Internet services were also not available in Sambhal, Aligarh, Mau, Ghaziabad, Azamgarh and Bareilly districts even as Section 144 of the CrPC, prohibiting assembly of four or more people, was already in force in the entire state for several days. A 25-year-old man was killed as violence erupted here and some other parts of the state, with protesters angry over the amended citizenship law pelting stones at police and torching vehicles.

In Ghaziabad, Jio users received a message that read, “As per the government instructions, the internet services have been temporarily stopped in your area because of which you are not able to use these services. You will be able to use the internet service once we get directions from the government”.

3 killed in police firing as protests against citizenship law sweep country

Reports of violence also came from BJP-ruled Karnataka and Gujarat, and Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal

Three persons died in police firing in massive protests, a few of which turned violent, across the country on Thursday against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Students, activists, and political parties that took part in these protests criticised the “discriminatory CAA and NRC”, and also accused the Narendra Modi government of bringing in the contentious law to divert attention from price rise, economic slowdown, and unemployment. Violence was reported in Sambhal and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh; Mangaluru in Karnataka, which led to curfew to be imposed there; and Ahmedabad. Protesters in Lucknow torched vehicles parked outside a police station.

Reports of violence also came from BJP-ruled Karnataka and Gujarat, and Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal. One person in Lucknow and two in Mangaluru died in police firing, reports said. At Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, protesters offered roses to security personnel, saying the police could baton charge them as much as they wanted, but their message was “love in return for hatred”….Click Here

CAA protests: 12 policemen among 21 injured in violence at Seelampur

A “hidden mob”, which swelled to 4,000 to 5,000 people, indulged in “minor clashes” with police in Seelampur, officials said.

Twenty-one people, including 12 policemen and six civilians, were injured in violence that erupted during a protest against the amended Citizenship Act in Delhi’s Seelampur on Tuesday, police said. Three personnel of Rapid Action Force were also injured, the officer said. Protestors torched several bikes, pelted policemen with stones and damaged buses and a police booth in Seelampur. A “hidden mob”, which swelled to 4,000 to 5,000 people, indulged in “minor clashes” with police in Seelampur, officials said.

AAP urges peace: The AAP and its Seelampur MLA Haji Ishraq appealed to the people to register their protest peacefully. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also appealed to Delhiites to maintain peace, saying violence cannot be tolerated in a civilised society.

Ex-Cong MLA named in Jamia FIR: The police has named former Congress MLA Asif Khan as an accused in its FIR on the Jamia violence on December 15, officials said on Tuesday.

Cops enter Madras varsity: A section of the students of the Madras University continued their protest for the second day on Tuesday as police entered the campus. Defiant students said they will continue their agitation “through the night”.

Bangladesh seeks to postpone meet: Bangladesh has sought postponement of two meetings on river management scheduled for later this week, sources said. Officials from the Ministry of Jal Shakti were to meet their Bangladeshi counterparts in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday…

Read More: CAA Protest

Ongoing unrest over Citizenship Act won’t derail our economic agenda: FM

‘There’s no undermining of India’s unity and its economy is important’, said the finance minister

The ongoing turmoil over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would not impact the government’s response to economic challenges, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, adding that the government was committed to reforms and was taking steps to revive growth. She also cautioned against “jihadist, Maoist, and separatist” elements getting into student activism.

“There’s no undermining of India’s unity and its economy is important…We can assure every step is being taken to ensure that India and the economy go forward and benefit all,” Sitharaman said at Times Network’s India Economic Conclave. “I shall be, together with the prime minister, working towards engaging with every sector and making sure their requirements are fulfilled and challenges are met,” she added. She, however, declined to say when she expected a turnaround in the economy. “I am not going to spend time saying when it (slowdown) is going to reverse. As long as anybody wants the government to intervene, we shall intervene,” she said.

India’s economy grew at 4.5 per cent in the September quarter, the slowest in six years. The government, she said, was working on reviving consumption by pushing forward rural programmes and ensuring money reaches consumers. Public investment in infrastructure was being taken seriously and the pending dues of small and medium enterprises were being cleared, she added. She acknowledged that goods and service tax collection in the first eight months of the financial year was lower than expected, and added there was no discussion in her department to revise the GST rates…

Read More: Citizenship Act Bill

Citizenship Act: Curfew relaxed in Guwahati, Dibrugarh after week-long stir

Night curfew in Guwahati, however, will continue to be in force

Curfew was on Monday relaxed in Guwahati from 6 am to 9 pm, with the city limping back to normalcy, following week-long protests over the amended Citizenship Act, Assam Police Chief Public Relations Officer Rajiv Saikia said. Night curfew in Guwahati, however, will continue to be in force, he told PTI. Assam’s Additional DGP (law and order) G P Singh had on Sunday tweeted that the decision to extend the hours of relaxation was taken in view of the improvement in the law- and-order situation.

“The situation having improved considerably, the day curfew is being withdrawn from Guwahati from 6AM of December 16th. Night curfew would remain from 9 PM till 6 AM next day,” Singh had tweeted. In Dibrugarh district, curfew has been eased off from 6 am to 8 pm. According to a senior district official, any Citizenship Bill protest meeting in Dibrugarh without the permission of the administration would have to end before 3 pm. The official also said that the measure was being taken to “prevent anti-social elements from mingling with the common people after dark”.

Police had been using loudspeakers since Sunday to inform people about the curfew relaxation and its re- imposition. Assam had been on the boil for the past few days as thousands of people came out on the streets to protest against the amended Citizenship Act. Agitators engaged in pitched battles with the police across various cities, forcing the administration to impose curfew.

Citizenship Act mix: Violence rocks Delhi; transports burnt, 60 harmed

BJP accused the Aam Aadmi Party for the savagery and requested it quit “inciting individuals”, however the AAP dismissed the charge

Dissenters burnt four open transports and two police vehicles on Sunday as they conflicted with police in south Delhi’s New Friends’ Colony close Jamia Millia Islamia college during an exhibition against the corrected Citizenship Act, leaving six cops and two fire fighters harmed, authorities said.

The issue began during a dissent by understudies of Jamia college. Be that as it may, an understudies’ body later said they don’t had anything to do with the brutality and pyromania and asserted that “specific components” had participate and “upset” the showing. Not long after the brutality, Jamia Millia Islamia Chief Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan guaranteed that the Delhi Police entered the grounds coercively with no authorization and beat up staff individuals and understudies who had to leave the grounds.

Denouncing the police activity, college bad habit chancellor Najma Akhtar said understudies who were inside the library have been taken out and are protected. After the brutality, a Jamia understudies’ body gave an announcement, saying, “We have on numerous occasions kept up that our fights are quiet and peaceful. We remain by this methodology.” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said any sort of savagery is unsuitable and fights ought to stay tranquil. Appointee CM Manish Sisodia said that all schools in southeast Delhi would stay shut on Monday...

Read Full Story: Citizanship Bill

Three killed in police firing as CAB protests flare across the Northeast

Two Bangladeshi ministers cancel visit to India; uncertainty over Guwahati hosting Shinzo Abe in India-Japan summit on December 15

Several parts of the Northeast continued to burn for a second day on Thursday, as people defied curfew in Assam to protest the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, leaving at least three dead in police firing in Guwahati.

The police opened fire to disperse protesters at Lalungaonn area in Guwahati. There were reports of people getting injured. Police also fired in the air in several other areas of the city, including the Guwahati-Shillong Road that turned into a war zone as protesters vandalised shops and buildings, burnt tyres, and clashed with security forces, PTI reported.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and peasants’ organisation KMSS called for a mega gathering at Latashil playground in the city, which was attended by hundreds of people. Several prominent personalities from the film and music industry, including icon Zubeen Garg, joined the gathering along with college students. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Sarbananda Sonowal have betrayed the people of Assam by ensuring passage of the Bill,” AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said.

Airlines cancelled their flights, with hundreds of passengers stranded at the Guwahati airport, and the railways suspended plying of trains beyond Guwahati. Schools will remain shut in Assam until December 22. Internet services remained suspended in the state, and were stopped in Meghalaya for 48 hours….Click Here

India abandoning its founding principles with Citizenship Amendment Bill

The purpose is to create, through law, a permanent threat to hang over every single Muslim head in India, writes Mihir S Sharma.

For 70 years, India has struggled to remain a secular state. In spite of its people being overwhelmingly Hindu, it chose not to distinguish between its citizens–or putative citizens–on the basis of their religion. That principle was what its founding fathers fought for, and what for decades led it to proudly distinguish itself from Pakistan, born at the same time as India but explicitly as a homeland for Muslims.

The Hindu nationalist party of which India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party played no part in the popular struggle for independence. It has no reason to quarrel with the “two-nation theory” that holds that the Muslims and Hindus of the subcontinent are always and forever two nations–the theory that Pakistan’s founders proposed and India’s founders rejected. Indeed, as far as the BJP is concerned, India is knit together by its Hindu heritage; India’s Muslim citizens are at best to be uneasily tolerated, and at worst to be seen as interlopers who belong in Pakistan.

This week, India’s parliament enshrined this worldview in law. It passed an amendment to India’s citizenship act that allowed a swift path to citizenship for refugees and migrants from certain neighboring countries–as long as they are Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Zoroastrian or Buddhist…

Read More: Citizenship Amendment Bill

Citizenship Bill 2019 becomes law with President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent

According to an official notification, the Act comes into effect with its publication in the official gazette on Thursday

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, became an Act of law after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the legislation on Thursday. According to an official notification, the Act comes into effect with its publication in the official gazette on Thursday.

According to the Act, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and by Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Act says the refugees of the six communities will be given Indian Citizenship Bill after residing in India for five years, instead of earlier requirement of 11 years. The Act also proposes to give immunity to such refugees facing legal cases after being found as illegal migrants.

According to the legislation, it will not be applicable to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and in the areas covered under the Inner Line Permit (ILP), notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.

The ILP regime is applicable in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. However, a large section of people and organisations in the Northeast, especially in Assam and Tripura, have opposed the Act, saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants irrespective of religion…