New Delhi: The Lok Sabha may have okayed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) after the Union home minister Amit Shah tabled it in the house on Monday, but it was the Intelligence Bureau (IB), India’s main internal intelligence agency, and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), mandated with the country’s external intelligence, that had expressed apprehensions, albeit on separate grounds, on the proposed legislation.
Representatives of the IB and R&AW had deposed four times before a parliamentary joint committee on CAB on September 21, 2016, October 3, 2016, March 22, 2017, and October 23, 2018.
The committee comprised of 30 MPs including 20 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
On whether claims of religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan could be verified, the IB had said that such individuals had entered India and had sought Indian citizenship decades ago.
“It is not possible to verify their claim now. However, for recent cases, if any, due verification would be made before their claim for Indian Citizenship is entertained.”
And how will that verification take place?
The IB reply said: “For an applicant who applies with an affidavit mentioning that he/she was compelled to migrate to India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution, along with other supporting documents, a detailed enquiry will be conducted by Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO)/Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) concerned to verify his/her claim. If the affidavit is not supported by documents, the case will be referred to Foreigners Tribunals to be constituted for this purpose under the Foreigners (Tribunals).”
On the available mechanism to establish ‘religious persecution’ in either Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, the home ministry stated: “Inputs from security agencies along with other corroborative evidence in the print/electronic media would help to establish religious persecution in a foreign land.”
The Director, IB, also claims that at the moment, 31,313 persons who had entered India and had applied for Indian citizenship on grounds of religious persecution in their respective country would be granted immediate citizenship.
But there will be many others who might have come and they might have already taken citizenship by various means by obtaining passports, ration cards etc. “For all practical purposes, they are already citizens of this country. Tribunals are already there to identify if any of them has obtained it by fraudulent means.”
The joint secretary of R&AW, deposing before the committee had expressed apprehension that CAB may be used by certain agencies (possibly referring to Pakistani intelligence agencies and others) to infiltrate their agents and supporters into India.
He said: “... our only concern has been that the agencies who are inimical to us should not have a legal framework within which they can exploit our situation and infiltrate their own people into our own country. That is a matter of great concern for us...”
The CAB proposes to grant Indian citizenship to people of six religions (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) from three countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan) on grounds of religious persecution if they have been residing in India before December 31, 2014, for at least 12 months immediately preceding the application for citizenship and for 6 of the 14 years preceding the 12-month period.
