Assam witnessed protests after CAA implementation

Assam will have the least number of applications on the portal: Himanta

People seeking citizenship have to give evidence that they entered before 2014: Himanta

The announcement of the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by the Narendra Modi government led to protests in the state of Assam which too is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The fear among citizens of Assam was that the provisions of the act has the scope for providing citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and especially Bangladesh. 

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attempted to pacify the protestors. In a press conference held on 14th March, he offered clarification. “CAA is completely insignificant in Assam; the state will have the least number of applications on the portal. People seeking citizenship have to give evidence that they entered before 2014 and the NRC will be the proof in Assam, but in other states, this does not exist. If they have not applied for NRC, it becomes clear that they were not there in the state before the cut-off date, and as such cannot get citizenship. The NRC has the details of the number of people who have applied, and due to technology, all data will be available on the internet and nothing can be hidden. The data will be presented in Parliament,” Himanta said.