New Delhi: A press release by the Union home affairs ministry that said the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) “protects Islam from being tarnished in the name of persecution” is no longer available on its original Press Information Bureau (PIB) webpage or on its X (formerly Twitter) page.
Titled “Positive Narrative on Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019” and styled in a question-and-answer format, the press release asserted that Muslim citizens of India would not have their citizenship affected by the CAA.
It was posted to the PIB’s website at 6:43 PM on Tuesday (March 12). It is unclear why the release is now unavailable.
Its contents were also posted to the PIB’s X page as “CAA myth busters” but have since been deleted.
The CAA aims to provide citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians purportedly fleeing persecution from India’s Muslim-majority neighbours – namely, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh – and who arrived in India before 2015.
The exclusion of Muslims from the provisions of the legislation and fears that it would disenfranchise many Muslims in India when combined with the National Register of Citizens sparked concerns and protests from thousands of citizens across the country.
Parliament passed the legislation in late 2019 but the government notified its rules only yesterday. The CAA could not be implemented without rules.
One of the home affairs ministry’s questions asked how the CAA would impact Islam’s image.
The answer to this question read: “Due to the persecution of Minorities in those three Muslim countries, the name of Islam was badly tarnished all around the world. However, Islam, being a peaceful religion, never preaches or suggests hatred/violence/any persecution on religious ground.”
“This Act showing the compassion and compensation for the persecution, protects Islam from being tarnished in the name of persecution,” it added.
The release said that Indian Muslims “need not worry as CAA has not made any provision to impact their citizenship”.
“Indian Muslims need not worry as CAA has not made any provision to impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the present 18 crore Indian Muslims, who have equal rights like their Hindu counterparts,” it read.
“No Indian citizen would be asked to produce any document to prove his citizenship after this Act,” it added.
Positive narrative on Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 by The Wire on Scribd
It also said India did not have a pact or agreement with either Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh for repatriating illegal Muslim migrants.
“This Citizenship Act doesn’t deal with the deportation of illegal immigrants and therefore the concern of a section of the people including Muslims and students that CAA is against Muslim Minorities is unjustifiable,” it continued to say.
To a question that asked why the Citizenship Act needed to be amended, the release cited a mix of providing amnesty to the minorities within the amendment’s ambit and ‘controlling’ illegal migrants.
“To show the mercy on the persecuted minorities of those three countries, this Act gives opportunity to them as per the evergreen generous culture of India to get Indian Citizenship for their happy and prosperous future,” its answer to the question read.
It added: “To customise the Citizenship system and control the illegal migrants, there was need of this Act.”
An introduction to the release also read that the CAA aimed to “show … generous treatment” to religious minorities who were persecuted in the three countries “as compensation for appeasing their persecution”.