Amid brutally protests across the country on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Ministry of Home Affairs has made it clear that those who were born before 1987 or whose parents were born before 1987 in India are bonafide Indian citizens according to law. Assuring the public of India, a top government official said that no one needs to worry due to the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) or a possible countrywide NRC.
According to the 2004 amendments of the Citizenship Act, people of the country, except those in Assam, whose one parent is an Indian and neither is an illegal immigrant are also considered Indian citizens. The clarification came amid ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019.
Those who are born in India before July 1, 1987, or whose parents were born in the country before that year are considered Indians under naturalization as per the law, the official said.
“There is no intent anywhere to throw out people arbitrarily. It is not even possible under the Indian law,” a senior official said.
“We also appeal to people to not compare the Citizenship Amendment Act with the NRC in Assam as the cut-off date for Assam is different,” the official said.
The categories are as followed:
1) If born in India on or after January 26, 1950, but before July 1, 1987.
2) If born in India on or after July 1, 1987, but before Dec 3, 2004, and where either of parents is a citizen of India at the time of your birth.
3) If born in India on or after December 3, 2004, if both the parents are citizens of India or one of the parents is a citizen of India and the other is not an illegal migrant at the time of your birth.
Officials said that implementation of the NRC is under progress and final rules are yet to come out but any person who falls into the above category should not fear eviction. They are only required to have documents to prove the same. Protesters are being misled by opposition parties and they have been provoked to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
“Birth certificate or some kind of municipal certificate should be enough to show Citizenship under NRC,” an MHA official said, adding Aadhaar, voter ID card or passport cannot be treated as citizenship document. “These are either travel documents or documents to show residency in India,” he said.
