The decision of the Union government to notify the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, which makes operational the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, days before elections to the 18th Lok Sabha are to be announced could trigger legitimate questions about the intentions of the government.

The law, and the rules, would enable unaccounted people from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who belong to any of the six religions — Hinduism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jainism and Christianity — to gain Indian citizenship if they had migrated to India before December 31, 2014. They can produce any one of the listed documents — birth certificate, tenancy records, identity papers, licence or educational certificate issued by a government authority in the three countries — for the purpose.

On the face of it, the rules are meant to help “minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh”, as Union Home Minister Amit Shah has promised. Mr Shah would go one step further and claim that it is the realisation of the “promise of the makers of our Constitution to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians living in those countries”.

But those who have a different opinion about the Constitution and the process of its drafting would argue that the CAA violates its foundational principles, most importantly, Article 14, which mandates that “the state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India”. By excluding Muslims from these regions, the government is denying them equality before the law and equal protection of the law.

Another argument forwarded by them is that the law has introduced religion as a criterion for the government to take a decision undermining both the Constitution and the secular character of the republic. It is to be noted that the Supreme Court has not yet found time to hear a plethora of petitions submitted before it questioning the constitutionality of this now-four-year old law.

The CAA would be the piece of legislation that faced the most criticism and opposition in the country, not counting the three agriculture laws that were repealed by the government. The Act, along with the stated objective of the Union government to implement a National Register of Citizens (NRC), sowed suspicion in the minds of people that the government was targeting the Muslim community. Instead of sitting with the protesters and explaining its intentions, the government took them on with all the might at its command, further exacerbating their doubts and the sense of alienation.
The BJP which is targeting 370 seats for itself and 400 for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) it heads in the Lok Sabha elections would presume the reignited discussion on the CAA at this juncture would project itself as the custodians of nationalism. Presumably, it is not worried about critics’ taunts such as the one from Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin who asked why the BJP is opting for this measure if it was so sure of the results of the election.

Several Opposition parties have already raised their objection to the notification and its timing, holding the government guilty of introducing a divisive agenda ahead of the election. Coming days will go to show as to whether the government is serious about its stated objective behind the law or merely wants to use the rules as a political tool.