The Citizenship Amendment Act's Next Chapter

A few weeks ago, the Indian government formally notified the rules implementing the controversial 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA. The law provides persecuted religious minorities hailing from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan an expedited pathway to Indian citizenship, provided they belong to the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Parsi, or Sikh communities. Notably, the law does not provide such a pathway to those who belong to the Muslim faith.
The notification of the CAA rules-on the eve of India’s 2024 general election-has kicked off a fresh debate over the law, its implementing provisions, and the resulting implications for the future of secularism in India.
To discuss all of this and more, Milan is joined on the show this week by legal scholar M. Mohsin Alam Bhat (www.qmul.ac.uk/law/people/aca...) . Mohsin is a Lecturer in Law at Queen Mary University of London, where he specializes in constitutional law and human rights. Mohsin has written extensively about law and citizenship in India.
Milan and Mohsin discuss the origins of the CAA, its constitutionality, and the fine print of the CAA rules. Plus, the two discuss the situation in Assam, that state’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the prospects of an all-India NRC exercise.
Episode notes:
1. “What’s Happening to India’s Rohingya Refugees? (grand-tamasha.simplecast.com/...) (with Priyali Sur and Daniel Sullivan),” Grand Tamasha, May 24, 2023.
2. Mohsin Alam Bhat and Aashish Yadav, “CAA will not help persecuted Hindus, Sikhs from neighbouring countries (indianexpress.com/article/opi...) ,” Indian Express, March 19, 2024.
3. “The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (prsindia.org/billtrack/the-ci...) ,” PRS Legislative Research.
4. Madhav Khosla and Milan Vaishnav, “The Three Faces of the Indian State (vaishnavmilan.files.wordpress...) ,” Journal of Democracy 32, no. 1 (2021): 111-125.
5. Mohsin Alam Bhat, “The Constitutional Case Against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...) ,” Economic and Political Weekly 54, no.3 (2019): 12-14.
6. Mohsin Alam Bhat, “‘The Irregular’ and the Unmaking of Minority Citizenship: The Rules of Law in Majoritarian India (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...) ,” Queen Mary Law Research Paper No. 395/2022.
7. Niraja Gopal Jayal, “Faith-based Citizenship (www.theindiaforum.in/article/...) ,” The India Forum, October 31, 2019.

[@minato.namekaze.47]

I would like to argue from a utilitarian point of view. The constitution is ultimately a document for a purpose and can be interpreted as to suit that purpose depending on the time period (unlike the US Constitution which sticks to it's original interpretation at least most of the time). India is still a lower income country. We cannot afford to integrate large number of refugees. Even the Liberal democracies in Europe and North America are having a hard time with it. We have to carefully vet people who can integrate easily in our country culturally and also abide by the constitution. From a historical perspective, Islam has been the least compatible religion that can coexist with other religions. Islam also has a problem with accepting the supremacy of constitutional law over it's religious Sharia law. Even today Muslims in India insist on living under Sharia law (drawing from Aurangzebs Fatwa-e-Alamgiri) and are against the application of Uniform Civil Code (which already exists in western democracies). Muslims in UK have gone to such lengths that they have parallel Sharia courts (of course without legal enforcement mechanisms yet) for Muslims. To hammer the point on Islam's religious incompatibility with other faiths, It was the primary reason that Islamic intellectuals refused to live in a Hindu majority country and so divided it in such a way that Muslims would be in the majority. Once in the majority, these Islamic countries slowly but steadily started persecuting religious minorities, which ends in forced conversions. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh had large minority populations. Today they have dwindled, whereas Muslim population in India has grown from 10% to 14% according to 2011 census. This is testament to Hinduisms pluralistic charachter as opposed to Islam and not due to some constitutional articles. Vast majority of Indians have no clue about the Constitution. It is Hinduism that has preserved tolerance. However, most people in India recognise that you cannot tolerate people who are intolerant and want to destroy our cultural and constitutional values. Muslims in India quote the Constitution when it suits them and ignore when it doesn't. You cannot have it both ways. As a passing remark even Mohsin's surname 'Bhat' probably is the same as that of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits who were ethnically cleansed from the Valley in 1990s. Maybe his family was "persuaded" and not forcefully converted. However, Kashmiri Pandits have suffered waves of such persecution from Mughal times. What did the moderate Muslims do during this time? Some helped the Pandits, others watched it from the sidelines. Then some apologised but what is the use of such apologies. I am moderate and I want India to be a pluralistic society from a constitutional perspective, however I am not going to be fooled. As I see it, it's a numbers game. Once Muslims in a region become majority then they demand Sharia law and others either have to leave or suffer persecution. This is the same fate I see people of Assam suffering if we do not stop the illegal migration from Bangladesh. We might be able to integrate the Hindus, where tensions still exist along ethnic lines among Assamese or Bangladeshi Hindus. Integrating Muslims in this country has been an extremely tough job. Even Pakistan and Bangladesh cannot integrate their minority Muslim factions like the Shias and Ahmadis (who played a leading role in the partition, oh the irony! ). I am sorry, in this case they can move to any of the other Muslim countries where they can live under Sharia law, however don't expect India to have responsibility for integrating such people who don't themselves do not intend to integrate. That's my two cents.

[@DrDante2478]

LONDONISTAN se specialist aaya hai INDIA KE LAW pe gyaan dene😂🖕🏾

[@breezeanonymous6034]

Mohsin is wrong to say 'ethnic state'. Hindu Muslim are not ethnicities but religious identities. Bangla, Tamil, Marathi, Gujju etc etc are ethnicities.

[@breezeanonymous6034]

Assam, NE Delhi wants to decrease ethnic Burmese nations by flooding it with Bengalis, all under the garb of 'Hindu Muslim'. Same model on other nations 'ruled' by Delhi.

[@alexdackard8795]

Every podcast talks about the symptoms of Hindu - Muslim alienation in India. What is the cause? Seems like irrespective of govt of the day animosity reigns all the time. A more favourable or secular govt seems to merely sweep the matter under the rug. How about it “grand tamasha” would you take up this dare and do a comprehensive podcast on the cause(s)? Dare to go where no one I have seen on KZbin has gone. ✌🏼

[@navneet8269]

Lakho veatnam ke logo marne Wala usa democracy ki batt,China ko 30 sal se help,pak ki Military established ment ko India ke khilaf... You have not a moral ground You teach India about secularism and democracy.

[@jaibholenath6900]

You are controversial not the act.. Why are u interfering our internal affairs. & then u cry when someone plots to take out an American on American soil. I guess we mustn't take a step back