Citizenship Amendment Bill cleared by Cabinet today: All you need to know

The Union Cabinet approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) today. 

On Tuesday evening, Home Minister Amit Shah held discussions with representatives of students’ bodies and civil society groups of Assam on the CAB. Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, attended the meetings. It was the third such session held by Shah since Friday to understand their concerns over the proposed law.

The groups, including the All Assam Students Union, told Shah that they are apprehensive that the proposed law, could affect the indigenous people of the northeast. There have been widespread protests in the northeastern states against the Bill. Government sources said the northeastern states could be kept out of the purview of the Bill.

Amidst a clamour for withdrawal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the students' union and alumni association of Cotton University, Assam have decided to ban the entry of members of the ruling BJP, RSS and other organisations supporting the bill into the varsity.

Along with the BJP-RSS, the students' union and alumni association also banned entry of all organisations and leaders, who are supporting the CAB, into the institution. They said the students' union opposes the CAB and it will organise a protest against it on December 5

Now what exactly is Citizenship bill?

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 in order to grant Indian nationality to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who come to India because of religious persecution in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan even if they do not possess proper documents. The Bill aims to change the definition of illegal migrants.