Contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill passed in Lok Sabha

New Delhi, Jan 8: The contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, was on Tuesday passed by the Lok Sabha even as the Congress and the TMC vehemently opposed it.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will allow citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.

The bill was passed amid uproar in the Lok Sabha with Congress MPs walking out of the House and the Trinamool Congress warning that Northeast will burn because of the Bill.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who tabled the controversial bill in Lok Sabha today, said the Bill is not only for Assam or for migrants from a particular country.

A large section of people, organisations in the Northeast have opposed the bill 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. The Meghalaya and Mizoram governments have also strongly opposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill and adopted resolutions against it.

In fact, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) snapped ties with the BJP on Monday over the Citizenship Bill. The AGP had earlier expressed reservations with the Bill saying it would make the Assam Accord meaningless.