CALIFORNIA: A group of non-resident Indians carried out a rally in Milpitas, California, in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act on January 12, 2020. The participants in the rally carried placards such as ‘NRIs support CAA’, ‘CAA is all about human rights’, ‘CAA won’t impact Indian citizens’, ‘CAA provides protection to persecuted minorities’, etc.
These rallies are aimed at “dispelling the misinformation and myths” surrounding the law as well as to counter the propaganda of hate, lies and downright absurdities, the organisers said. More than 40 eminent doctors and community leaders joined the rally in California.
The CAA seeks to provide citizenship to the minority communities, namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This will apply to the members of these communities having arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.
Moreover, they will not be considered as illegal migrants. Additionally, the mandatory residence period for naturalised citizenship for these communities would be reduced to five years. The opposition contends that the Bill discriminates based on religion, which might go against Article 14, which guarantees the right to equality.
