Citizenship Bill Passed By Rajya Sabha After Heated Debate. Clashes Erupt In Assam.

The much contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill was approved by the Rajya Sabha today with 125 votes in favour and 99against it.

The bill was passed after a prolonged day of arguments and counter-arguments by key members of the Upper House. It has already been passed by the Lok Sabha earlier.

The bill aims to provide Indian citizenship to members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there.

In other words, the Bill intends to make it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from India¡¯s three Muslim-majority neighbours to become citizens of India.

Under The Citizenship Act, 1955, one of the requirements for citizenship by naturalisation is that the applicant must have resided in India during the last 12 months, as well as for 11 of the previous 14 years.

The amendment relaxes the second requirement from 11 years to 6 years as a specific condition for applicants belonging to these six religions, and the aforementioned three countries.

The bill, which specifically omits out Muslim illegal immigrants from the citizenship criteria has been criticized for targeting the community. Those opposed to the bill argue that the Bill violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to equality.

CAB has been a contentious issue, especially in the north-eastern states which share a boundary with Bangladesh and has a large illegal immigrant population there. They argue that granting citizenship to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh will make the indigenous communities a minority in their own land.

Violent clashes erupt in NE

Its ripples have sent the people on the streets in the northeastern flank of the country, where several reports of violence in protest against the bill have surfaced over the past two days.

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Assam turned into a battleground on Wednesday with massive and violent protests across the state against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, but the government pushed the contentious legislation through Parliament overruling a vociferous Opposition that alleged it was against the idea of India as a secular nation.

As thousands of people including students hit the streets in Assam, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells and baton-charged the protesters leaving many of them injured, while curfew was imposed in Guwahati and a clampdown on internet services was announced across several districts of the state, reported news agency PTI.

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Similar protests rocked several other North-Eastern states, but the bill was passed by majority later in the evening in Rajya Sabha after a hours-long debate, two days after it was cleared in Lok Sabha.

The bill now requires President's signature to become a law.

Army deployment was announced in Tripura and Assam, where the influx of Bangladeshi immigrants has always been an emotive issue for natives of the state. The Centre also airlifted 5,000 paramilitary personnel to Northeastern states, including Assam, for maintenance of law and order duties.

Agitated students, protesting against the proposed law that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to all but Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, blocked road and rail traffic, pulled down barricades and even lobbed back the shells fired at them by the police.