The Citizenship Amendment Bill, now called The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed on December 11, 2019 by the Lok Sabha of Indian Parliament. The Act extends Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Parsi, Sikh and/or Jain communities, who arrived from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan. The extension of this provision to immigrants is only pertinent provided they arrived into the country on or before December 31, 2014.
Around the same time, the National Register of Citizens was also implemented in Assam, which is a list of documented Indian citizens and the ones excluded have to prove their citizenship by presenting fitting documents and appropriate identifications. Failure of which will result in their case brought into the notice of foreigners’ tribunal and further up to courts of jurisdiction. Moreover, detention centres have been built to house the illegal immigrants but the Assam government has declared not to detain any until the foreigners’ tribunal declares one as a refugee/immigrant.
The passing of CAA and NRC, along with the exclusion of the Muslim community from the bill created a havoc in the nation. The nation blamed the government for transforming secularism into religious nationalism and propagating Hinduism. While the government defended itself, a vehement attack transpired on the passive students and protestors of Jamia Milia Islamia University on December 15, 2019. This commotion led to further violence involving protestors bombarding the police personnel with stones and retaliation by the police with tear gas. But while some blamed the government, many supported the decision as well.
India is a powerful nation. While many elected participation in protests, others vocalised their opinions, in favour or contradiction of CAA through every platform possible. Twitter is the go to social media site for everyone, from politicians to world leaders, from celebrities to common population all across the globe to express their opinion. “#CAA” was the most trending hashtag, however not for the most righteous and celebratory reasons, during the course of the events. Understanding the stand of the nation and its people in regard with the bill is of utmost importance and this can be done only by analysing and comprehending people’s opinions through the content and context of their tweets.