Opposed in LS, government refers Citizenship Bill to Select Committee of Parliament

New Delhi: After facing a united opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Citizenship (Amendment) bill 2016 will now be referred to the select committee of Parliament, by Bhartiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Responding to the demand of the Opposition, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that considering the view of all the parties, he has no problem in sending the draft bill to the select committee.

What opposition demanded:

• The proposal to send the bill to the committee was given by Bhrtruhari Mahtab, the Biju Janata Dal leader, after the Question Hour. Mahtab said that it was an important bill and needed detailed scrutiny.
• “India, from time immemorial, has been accepting people, who are persecuted because of their religious belief, with open arms. We have accepted people from all quarters of this world,” stated the politician.
• The leader also suggested government to ask the committee to submit its report in a time-bound manner.
• Mahtab’s demand was also supported by opposition leaders namely Jyotiraditya Scindia from Congress, Sudip Bandhopadhyaya from Trinamool Congress and Mohammad Salim from Communist Party of India (Marxist).
• Scindia and Salim stated that the bill would have a direct impact on the Assam Accord and Trinamool Congress, which had dealt with the problems of migrants from Bangladesh.

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The Citizenship (Amendment) Draft Bill:

• The bill was introduced in July last, by the NDA government, to amend the Citizenship Act 1995.
• The bill proposed to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Parsis, from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, after the stay of six years, even if they do not have the required document.
• The Muslims were excluded from the provision of the proposed Bill.