NEW DELHI: India’s upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, on Wednesday passed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, with 125 votes in favour and 99 against, allowing for the first time citizenship on the basis of religion to six communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Muslims have been pointedly excluded.

The votes of the AIADMK, the Janata Dal (United) and the Biju Janata Dal were key in helping the BJP-led government get the bill passed in the upper house. Members of former BJP ally Shiv Sena did not vote.

The bill, which has already been passed by the lower house of parliament, will amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, and will grant citizenship to non-Muslim communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before Dec 31, 2014.

The debate in the Rajya Sabha saw fiery exchanges, with the opposition accusing the government of destroying the constitution.

Replying to the criticism, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said: “The bill has no provision to snatch citizenship from anyone but to grant citizenship to the refugees.

“There is no need for Indian Muslims to live in fear. India has given respect to its Muslim population. This bill does not discriminate against them.”

Mr Shah said “lakhs and crores” of people would benefit from the bill though he did not explain when asked how he had arrived at the numbers.

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien remarked that the director of Intelligence Bureau had said in a report that around 31,000 people would be the immediate beneficiaries.

Kapil Sibal of Congress sought to know how the government would differentiate between illegal migrants and those persecuted on religious grounds. He said the government was forcing migrants to lie that they came from Bangladesh.

Responding to this, Mr Shah said: “If you asked someone they are illegal, they will say ‘no’. But we will tell them that you will be granted citizenship from the date you entered. Had they disclosed earlier, they would have been arrested, lost jobs... marriages would have broken. Earlier, they couldn’t declare they are illegal. Can’t you hear their pain?”

Strongly opposing the bill, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva asked the government why only one religion had been excluded for according citizenship to illegal immigrants. He said the bill was “polarising” and that the government was targeting a particular religion.

Mr Shah said the statements by Congress MPs were similar to that of Prime Minister Imran Khan, leading to a sharp retort from the party. He said any Muslim could apply for citizenship through the usual channels and in the past five years, 566 persons from Pakistan had been given citizenship.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the passage of the bill as a “landmark day” for India and its ethos of “compassion and brotherhood”.

He said anyone could move the court against the bill but he was confident that it would pass the test of law.

He asked the Congress to stop fooling the minorities, adding that during its rule, more than 13,000 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan became Indian citizens.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019