India fact-checks international media report on CAA, labels it ‘misleading’
CAA rules
India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Tuesday (Mar 12) issued a fact-check rebuttal of claims made by international media outlet Al Jazeera that had labelled the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) "anti-Muslim".
India on Monday (Mar 11) announced the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, which aims at granting citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
In a post on X on the same, Al Jazeera wrote: "India implements 'anti-Muslim' 2019 citizenship law weeks before election."
Also read:What is CAA? How it fast tracks citizenship of religious minorities from parts of South Asia
The social media post linked to an article from the Qatar-based media group, headlined, "India implements 'anti-Muslim' 2019 citizenship law weeks before election".
PIB posted a screenshot of the Al Jazeera report, marking it as "MISLEADING".
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The government agency wrote, "Misinformation is being spread by @AJEnglish regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act, calling the act 'anti-Muslim'".
It added that "CAA will not take away citizenship of any Indian citizen irrespective of religion. It's not against any single religion/ community."
"It's an enabling law only to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighboring countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan & Bangladesh," it added.
Earlier, India's Ministry of Home Affairs had emphasised that the Act "does not prevent any Muslim, who is persecuted in those Islamic countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) for practising their version of Islam, from applying for Indian citizenship under the existing laws".
"CAA does not cancel the naturalisation laws. Therefore, any person, including Muslim migrants from any foreign country, seeking to be an Indian citizen, can apply for the same under the existing laws," the ministry added.
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Such false claims and misleading headlines were carried by several international news sites.
For example, BBC's headline reads, "CAA: India to enforce migrant law that excludes Muslims".
The headline of The Guardian report reads, "India enacts citizenship law criticised as ‘discriminatory’ to Muslims".
The headline of the CNN report is "India moves to implement controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims".
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in December 2019, and it got the president's assent.
The law, however, could not come into effect so far as rules have to be notified for its implementation.
Enacted on December 11, 2019, CAA amended the Citizenship Act 1955 by offering a path towards Indian Citizenship for minority religions from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, or Christians who arrived in India before the end of December 2014.
The home ministry said that the "Constitution of India grants us the right to provide religious persecuted refugees with fundamental rights and to grant citizenship from a humanitarian perspective".
The implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act was delayed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Earlier this month, the government went ahead with a notification for implementing CAA.
(With inputs from agencies)