It was keeping this humanistic view in mind that then-Opposition Rajya Sabha member Manmohan Singh spoke in Parliament in 2003 about India’s ‘moral obligation that if circumstances force people… to seek refuge in our country, our approach to granting citizenship to these unfortunate persons should be more liberal’. This can also help change perceptions harboured by many Indians who still view all immigrants, including those who can apply for citizenship under CAA, as a burden. India is large, prosperous and giving enough to share hearth and home with the persecuted of other countries.
For those worried about CAA being a roundabout tool to revoke citizenship of Indian Muslim citizens, home minister Amit Shah had reassured in February that CAA ‘cannot snatch anyone’s citizenship because there is no provision in the Act’. There is no reason why the law notified on the onset of Ramzan should discount his assurance. Indeed, GoI should emphasise its assurance, so that misinformation about ‘welcoming their minorities at the cost of our minorities’ finds no succour by hyphenating CAA with the more problematic National Register of Citizens (NRC). India should, at some point, also find a way by which to provide the same legal protection it will now provide non-Muslim refugees to bona fide Muslim refugees who have lived in India for years. That would be the next right thing to do.