Religion cannot be basis of citizenship: Cong MP Manish Tewari on ‘CAA rules before LS polls’

There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and received the presidential assent subsequently. A senior government functionary on Tuesday said Rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 will be notified “much before” the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

Tagging a media report on the remarks by the government functionary, Tewari said, “In a country that has Secularism enshrined in the Preamble of its Constitution can religion be the basis of Citizenship whether extra-territorial or even territorial? The answer is no.” “This was the nub of my argument when I led the opposition to the CAA Bill in the Lok Sabha in December 2019. It is the Core question in the Challenge before the Supreme Court,” the MP from Punjab said.

“Hypothetically-Tomorrow a government could argue that religion will be the basis of Citizenship even territorially not place of birth or the other criterion for citizenship in the Constitution of India or the Citizenship Act,” he said.

In the name of reasonable classification to surmount religious persecution in our neighbourhood, Tewari said, he hopes the ground is not being prepared for some other “insidious template”.