Historic Debate Begins As Home Minister Amit Shah Tables Citizenship Amendment Bill in Rajya Sabha

Home Minister Amit Shah has tabled the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Rajya Sabha today (11 December), which was passed in Lok Sabha on Monday (9 December).

“There has been an almost 20 per cent decline each in population of religious minorities in both Pakistan and present day Bangladesh. Either they were killed or they fled to India for shelter,” Shah said in his introductory address on CAB, 2019.

The bill will be debated upon in the Rajya Sabha for about six hours allocated by the business advisory committee of the House.

Shah also tried to clear the cloud on the argument that the Indian citizens of minority communities were threatened by the Bill. “Misinformation has been spread that this bill is against Muslims of India. I want to ask the people saying this that how is this bill related to Indian Muslims? They are Indian citizens and will always remain, no discrimination against them,” he stated.

Before the Bill was introduced in the House, several members of opposition parties brought in a resolution to send it to Rajya Sabha select committee.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019, which seeks to give Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday midnight though it was vehemently opposed by the major opposition parties which described it as "anti-Muslim".

However, the government rejected the opposition's claims, saying the Bill does not affect the Muslim community residing in the country.

The draft legislation was passed after division of votes with 311 in its favour and 80 against it, following a marathon debate which continued till 12.06 am on Tuesday after beginning at about 4 pm on Monday (9 December). A total of 48 Parliamentarians took part in the debate.