Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that the reality is completely opposite to the apprehensions expressed about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He clarified that so far only three foreign nationals in Assam have got Indian citizenship under CAA, while a total of 12 applications have been received. The remaining nine applications are still under consideration. Sarma said that when so few applications have come, it is meaningless to discuss that lakhs of people will get citizenship in Assam through CAA. He accused the opposition of trying to spoil the atmosphere by unnecessarily dragging the state into controversy.
New notification of the central government
In fact, the central government has recently issued the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025. In this, those people have been exempted from some provisions, who have come to India to take refuge due to religious persecution from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It includes people of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities. According to the notification, those who have entered India till 31 December 2024, whether they have a valid passport or their validity has expired, will not be subject to strict conditions related to passport and visa. Along with this, it has also been clarified that some provisions will not be applicable to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who came to India till 9 January 2015.
Protests and apprehensions
After this notification of the central government, protests have started in many places including Assam. Various organizations and opposition parties have alleged that this step has been taken to pave the way for granting citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindu Bengali immigrants. They say that this will affect the demography and culture of Assam. The protesting organizations have warned of launching a massive movement. However, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma termed these apprehensions as baseless and said that when only 12 applications have been received so far, it is completely wrong to say that lakhs of people will take citizenship.
Citizenship law and the reality of Assam
It is worth noting that the purpose of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) is to grant Indian citizenship to those non-Muslim refugees who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh till 31 December 2014 and have been living here for at least five years. However, now the central government has issued a notification extending this period till 31 December 2024. But the Chief Minister of Assam says that the notification will not have any significant impact on the state. He said, “Even when there was talk of 20-25 lakh people getting citizenship, the truth is that only three people have got citizenship so far. In such a situation, creating unnecessary controversy on this issue is nothing but politics.”
