The central government on Monday, March 11, 2024, officially announced the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the law was passed in Parliament four years ago on December 11, 2019.
Under the provisions of the Act, persecuted migrants from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh who have entered India before December 31, 2014 without valid travel documents or if the validity of their documents has expired can apply for the Indian citizenship under this Act.
It is important to emphasize that the Muslim community is exempted from this law as they are the majority in the above mentioned Islamic countries.
In 2019, the CAA emerged as the most controversial law after it was passed in Parliament, due to the unrest and violence that broke out in the northern region of the country, with Delhi becoming the focal point of protests. Vandalism, uproar and commotion were seen on the streets of Delhi. This turmoil and unrest was fueled by misinformation, one-sided propaganda and propagated predominantly by the left-liberal media. Propaganda against the bill took place at the global level as well; many foreign leftist media organizations also played a pivotal role in spreading unrest in the country.
The violence and choas were marked by misconceptions, including the belief that the CAA would revoke the citizenship of Indian citizens or that the bill is unconstitutional due to its alleged exclusion of the Muslim community.
The online social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) became the breeding ground for distorting the actual facts and provisions about the CAA, with left-leaning media becoming the medium for those opposing the bill. The facts were distorted in such a manner that the protesters, who had no idea about the provisions of the act, were manipulated and brainwashed through a carefully crafted anti-Muslim narrative. The purpose of this narrative was to create fear among Muslims that they would lose their citizenship after this bill becomes law.
Apart from that, many visuals emerged from the protest site highlighted instances of people lacking understanding about of the CAA’s provisions. In fact, most of the protesters who gathered to express their ‘disagreement’ against the CAA law had no idea what the purpose of this law was. A prominent example of this was Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar, who joined the protest at Kranti Maidan to express his dissent against the bill, but when one of the journalists present at the site asked him about the bill, he failed to provide the logical explanation.
Four years later, now that the Center has announced the implications of the CAA, the same trend of spreading misinformation about the CAA via online medium continues.
The Only Fact team recently found an X space whose listeners and speakers were supporters of the BRS party. The Spaces feature on X allows users to have live audio conversations with other users or groups. We saw that the focus of that space was on how the CAA law is unconstitutional.
During the space, a user going by the handle @/Charwaka99, who appeared to be an Ambedkarite and BRS supporter, was heard saying, “Tomorrow they will come and ask you to prove whether you are a citizen or not next time they will ask you to prove whether you are a human being or not, what is this? Who are you to tell if I am a citizen or not, if I am a citizen or not, there are a lot of things which are already there. Key points here Passport, Aadhaar, Ration Driving License, Voter ID are not valid as proof as Amit Shah said. You can see on YouTube, that video is still there. This is their scheme and all of us should prove again that we’re citizens. Next, it is not about specific religion, it is a massive program that questions citizens to prove whether you are a citizen or not. How unfair is this question. You won because I voted, you never asked me whether I was a citizen or not not when I voted. Who are you to ask? Let me ask you a question. You are my servants, you had no right to ask us whether I am a citizen or not. They are subverting the rights, how right was the state to question us.”
Here the user is claiming that the CAA law is unconstitutional and is designed to make Indian citizens prove their citizenship. However, this claim is completely baseless and false.
Will Indian citizens have to prove their citizenship under CAA?
During our investigation, we discovered that in 2019, the government of India took a proactive step to address and dispel myths surrounding the CAA bill. They released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that aimed to debunk the misconception that the CAA would adversely impact Indian citizens.
Here are the questions and answers posted by the government:
Does the CAA affect any Indian citizen?
No, it has absolutely nothing to do with any Indian citizen in any way. The Indian citizens enjoy fundamental rights conferred on them by the Constitution of India. No statute, including the CAA, can abridge or take them away. There has been a misinformation campaign. The CAA does not affect any Indian citizens, including Muslim citizens.
Who does the CAA apply to?
It is relevant only for Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian foreigners, who have migrated from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan into India up to 31.12.2014, on account of persecution faced by them due to their religion. It does not apply to any other foreigners, including Muslims migrating to India from any country, including these three countries.
How does it benefit Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian foreigners hailing from these three countries?
If their travel documents like passport and visa are not in order or are not available, they can apply for Indian citizenship if they were persecuted back home. The CAA creates this legal right for such migrants. Secondly, they get a faster route for Indian citizenship through the Naturalization Mode. The minimum residency requirement in India would be only 1+5 years instead of 1+11 years as applicable for all other categories of foreigners.
Does this mean that Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan can never get Indian citizenship?
No, the present legal process of acquiring Indian citizenship by any foreigner of any category through Naturalization (Section 6 of the Citizenship Act) or through Registration (Section 5 of the Act) stays operational. The CAA does not amend or alter it in any manner whatsoever. Hundreds of Muslims migrating from these three countries have been granted Indian citizenship during the last few years. If found eligible, all such future migrants shall also get Indian citizenship, irrespective of their numbers or religion. In 2014, after the settlement of Indo-Bangladesh boundary issues, 14,864 Bangladeshi citizens were given Indian Citizenship when their enclaves were incorporated into the territory of India. Thousands of these foreigners were Muslims.
The CAA will gradually exclude Indian Muslims from the citizenship of India?
The CAA does not apply to any Indian citizen at all. All Indian citizens enjoy the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. CAA is not meant to deprive any Indian citizen of his citizenship. Rather it is a special law to enable certain foreigners facing a particular situation in three neighboring countries to get Indian citizenship.
CAA will be followed by NRC and all migrants except Muslims will be given citizenship and Muslims will be sent to detention camps?
The CAA has nothing to do with NRC. The legal provisions regarding NRC have been part of The Citizenship Act, 1955 since December 2004. Also, there are specific statutory rules of 2003 to operationalize these legal provisions. They govern the process of registration of Indian citizens and the issuance of national identity cards to them. These legal provisions have been on the statute books since the last 15-16 years. The CAA has not altered them in any way whatsoever.
The FAQ clarifies that no Indian citizen will be affected after the implementation of the CAA law. Furthermore, any citizen living in India will not have to prove his/her citizenship, whether he/she is Hindu or Muslim. This law is applicable only to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities of Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh and is designed to provide them Indian citizenship.
CAA has been wrongly linked to NRC, the database of Indian citizens. However, a draft has not been prepared to conduct NRC at the national level. In India, only the state of Assam has NRC.
Additionally, for a better understanding of the CAA bill, one can refer to a fact check report by Only Fact. This report contains in-depth research and covers all the provisions of the CAA.
Conclusion: Following the Centre’s announcement on Monday, anti-CAA campaigners have become active on social media platforms to spread misinformation. Many posts and articles from left-leaning media are being shared. Misleading hashtags are used to create trending topics supporting false narratives about the bill. Many foreign propaganda media outlets such as the New York Times and Al Jazeera with anti-India agendas have also become highly active contributing to the global spread of misinformation.
Posts on Instagram, Facebook and X can quickly gain traction and influence thousands of users. Its effect can create a situation like the violence of 2019. Protests are already taking place in some parts of the country, spreading misinformation will do nothing but embolden these protesters with misleading narratives and create yet another unrest in the country.
| Claim | After the implication of CAA, Indian citizens will have to prove their citizenship |
| Claimed by | BRS supporters |
| Fact Check | False |
