Rajya Sabha to discuss Citizenship Amendment Bill tomorrow

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha members are set to discuss the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill that seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh on the grounds that they are facing religious persecution in the Muslim-dominated countries.

The discussion is scheduled to begin at 2 PM and six hours have been allocated for the same. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, passed in the Lok Sabha with a big majority after a heated discussion that lasted seven hours. 311 members voted favouring it and 80 votings against the bill. Several amendments brought by opposition members, including one by a Shiv Sena MP, were defeated either by voice vote or division

Critics of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill has stated that it is unconstitutional, and protests have been held in several parts of India against it including Assam where exams have been postponed in few universities in lieu of the bandh. The bandh is still underway in many North-Eastern states.

According to the proposed bill, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship with relaxed rules to allow for them to continue to live in India.