Ever wondered how many persecuted Hindus and Sikhs have got Indian citizenship?
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, in a written reply to a question regarding granting citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Rajya Sabha on December 11th 2019 informed that 391 Afghani and 1595 Pakistani migrants have been granted Indian Citizenship during last three years (2016 to 2018). He added that in 2019, 40 Afghani and 712 Pakistani migrants have been granted Indian Citizenship till 6th December 2019.
Rai noted that provision for capturing online the citizenship data of migrants from minority communities namely – Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian – hailing from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh was introduced in 2018 and as per available data, 927 Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan and Pakistan have been granted Indian Citizenship since then.
Due to religious persecution and apathy shown by other nations when it comes to providing refuge to religiously persecuted Hindus and Sikhs, India has opened doors for them with the passage of Citizenship Bill 2019.
Amit Shah had said during his statement that partition of India on religious lines and subsequent failure of the Nehru-Liaqat pact of 1950 in protecting the rights and dignity of the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh are the reasons for bringing this Bill. He added, “Had this bill come 50 years ago, this situation would not have arisen. The biggest mistake in history was partition of India on religious lines. The CAB was in our manifesto and the people gave us a resounding mandate in 2019, thus it is the solemn resolve of this Government to fulfil its commitment”.