Amid the political backlashes and protests over the Center’s notification of rules for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, an old video featuring Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud’s son challenging the constitutionality of the law is gaining significant attention online.
In the viral video, Abhinand Chandrachud is arguing that the CAA leaves out several minorities, atheists, and agnostics, which goes against the secular principles of India.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was originally passed in 2019 to accelerate the process of granting citizenship to non-Muslim people who purportedly fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan before December 31, 2024.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi posted Abhinav’s video on X, tagging, “Do listen to Abhinav Chandrachud on not just CAA but also the constitutional gaps over the years on citizenship.”
The advocate asked why those who fall under the act get to be citizens in 5 years, while those who don’t have to wait for 11 years to become citizens through constitutional naturalization don’t. “This does not make any sense to me,” he said.
“The residence requirement in India has been reduced by the Citizenship Amendment Act. So anyone who wants to apply to be a citizen by naturalization has to reside in India for 11 years. But for somebody who falls under the Citizenship Amendment Act, the residency requirement is only five years,” he said.
Giving an example of how it applies to the Parsis’s, Abhinav explained, “The Parsis originally fled Iran. A Parsi who fled Iran and came to India has to wait 11 years to be naturalized as a citizen, but a Parsi who flees Afghanistan has to wait only 5 years.”
Muslim’s need not to worry: MHA
Abhinav said that he once questioned why the Jews were left out of the CAA. Surprisingly, he was told that the Jews have Israel. He then argued that since Christians and Buddhists also have their own countries, why are they still a part of the CAA?
He further claimed that the government has “left out the Muslims who may be considered minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.”
Explaining the two waves of migration that took place from West Pakistan to India—in 1947 and then in 1948.
“This second wave of returns created problems for the Indian administration. The Hindus and Sikhs were given the properties of the Muslims who had left India,” he said.
During the second wave of migration, the Center came up with a permit system for those who left India and those who wanted to return. But this system was not used during the migration from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
“This puzzled me and made me wonder why it was not for East Pakistan.While there were only about seven or eight hundred thousand Hindus left in West Pakistan, there were 16 million Hindus left in East Pakistan at the time when the permit system was introduced,” he said.
Meanwhile, the law is facing constant criticism for discrimination against Muslims. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has assured that Indian Muslims need not worry about it.
Indian Muslims need not worry, as CAA has not made any provision to impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the present 18 crore Indian Muslims, who have equal rights like their Hindu counterparts. No Indian citizen would be asked to produce any document to prove his citizenship after this Act,” MHA said in a statement.
