With the Centre opening the platform for verification regarding the notification of the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), Pakistani Hindus living in India have now started filing online citizenship applications in Delhi, Nagpur, and elsewhere, according to sources in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
About 2,000 Pakistani Hindus living in Nagpur are preparing to seek Indian citizenship, with a similar number documented in the national Capital. The migrants from the neighbouring country are navigating the intricacies of filing online applications that will enable them to reside in India without the hassle of seeking visa extensions and other paperwork.
While protests by certain sections against the CAA continue in Delhi, Assam, Karnataka, and West Bengal, leaders from Opposition parties question the CAA notification, alleging that only minorities are being targeted.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur lashed out at the Opposition, saying thousands of Dalit families from neighbouring countries now living in India were awaiting citizenship. “Do those who came from Pakistan and whose two-three generations have passed have no right to citizenship?” he asked.
After the partition of the country, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised that minorities living in neighbouring countries would be protected, but Thakur charged that the Congress did nothing for it in the last 75 years.
Meanwhile, some relatives of beneficiaries who entered the country in recent years are seeking relaxation in the cutoff date to accommodate them. The Centre implemented the CAA on Monday, notifying the rules four years after the law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014
Vinod, who hails from the Sindh province of Pakistan, said he and seven of his family members crossed over to India through the Wagah-Attari border on a visit visa on December 31, 2014. He said they hadn’t even dreamt about the ‘life-changing’ event that would unfold 10 years later, referring to the CAA.
He is among those who have already submitted their online applications for Indian citizenship. A resident of Nagpur’s Jaripatka locality, which has a sizable population of Sindhis, Vinod mentioned that he was a cloth merchant in Pakistan when he came to India with his wife, two children, parents, and two other relatives.
“We have been staying here on long-term visas. We are thrilled with the implementation of the CAA as we will now become citizens of India,” said Anand, his colleague.
Both thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for making the CAA a reality.
Sources said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been receiving requests for relaxation of the cutoff date for some people who came to India six months after his entry.
