NEW DELHI, Jan. 15 -- The last few days have seen protests break out in the Northeastern states in response to the Lok Sabha's decision to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill of 2016. While the protests are centred on the fear that the bill will enable a dilution of local and indigenous identity by accelerating demographic changes, there are other, constitutional reasons to oppose it, and urge the Rajya Sabha to reject it.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill provides that "persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan", shall not be considered illegal migrants. It also provides an accelerated path to citizenship, lowering the residence requirem...