Implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act could reduce the role of minorities in the country, while encouraging majoritarian forces, Nobel laureate and economist Amartya Sen has said, reported PTI on Saturday.
“As far as I can see, one of BJP’s purposes [by implementing CAA] is to reduce the role of minorities and make them less important and, in a direct and indirect way, increase the role of the Hindu majoritarian forces in India and to that extent undermine the minorities,” he told PTI in an interview.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, approved by Parliament on December 11, 2019, provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, excluding Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014.
It has been widely criticised as discriminatory and Indian Muslims fear it could be used with the National Register of Citizens to harass and disenfranchise them. It had sparked massive protests across the country.
The law, however, is yet to be implemented as rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act have not been framed.
“It’s very unfortunate for a country like India which is meant to be a secular, egalitarian nation and it [the law] has also…
