For the past one week, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated group has been organising camps and issuing “eligibility certificates” to members of the Hindu community from Pakistan to help them apply for citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA).
The group, Seemajan Kalyan Samiti, which operates in the areas along the Pakistan border, has helped around 330 people from Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur in Rajasthan upload their documents on the citizenship portal - indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in – launched by the Home Ministry.
The CAA grants citizenship to members of six “persecuted” non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The certificate, a mandatory document to be issued by a “locally reputed community institution”, is to be enclosed with an affidavit and uploaded on the CAA portal along with other documents.
Vikram Singh Rajpurohit, an advocate and a member of the group, told The Hindu that since the Samiti is a registered organisation, it could issue the certificate. “One of our mantris [office-bearers], Tribhuvan Singh Rathore, is signing the eligibility certificates, we are a community-based organisation,” said Mr. Rajpurohit.
The certificates, which could also be issued by a local priest, are to validate the religion of the applicant, and that he or she continues to follow the faith.
A photograph posted on the Samiti’s Facebook page said the group was organising “free citizenship application camp” in Jaisalmer. Around 60 people are seen sitting on the floor in a room, which has posters of Bharat Mata and pictures of former RSS chiefs K.B. Hedgewar and M.S. Golwalkar.
‘Hundreds waiting’
Mr. Rajpurohit said, “There are hundreds of people who came to India before 2010 and are yet to receive citizenship. I met a woman who came here in 1998 but does not have citizenship. In Jodhpur alone, there are around 5,000-6,000 such people.”
There are around 400 Pakistani Hindu refugee settlements in cities like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jaipur in Rajasthan where an estimated two lakh people are said to be living. These people came to India in different phases.
It is to be noted that since the Pakistani Hindus entered India legally, on pilgrim or tourist visas, they were eligible for citizenship under Section 5 and Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The CAA, a law for undocumented migrants, helps the legal migrants as it reduces the eligibility criteria from 12 years’ stay in India to five years.
The CAA also intends to benefit the Matuas, a Scheduled Caste community in West Bengal who came from Bangladesh during and after the 1971 war. Most of them possess documents such as passport, voter identity card among others, proving their Indian citizenship. However, the portal requires them to furnish at least one document tracing their roots to Bangladesh as well as the date of entry in India to be eligible for citizenship under the CAA.
‘Religion card’
Mamata Bala Thakur, a Trinamool Congress leader from the community, earlier told The Hindu that no one has applied under the CAA as the portal asked for “all sorts of documents”. She added, “They say that a pujari (priest) can issue an eligibility certificate. If he has more value than the law of the land, then what was the need to pass the Bill in Parliament? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made it a money-making service and is providing religion card to people.”
Union Minister and BJP leader Shantanu Thakur is the chief of the All India Matua Mahasangha, which is issuing the pink cards certifying the religion of the community members in Bongaon district of West Bengal.
On March 11, days ahead of the announcement of the general election, the Home Ministry notified the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024, enabling the implementation of the CAA, four years after the legislation was passed in 2019.
