New Delhi: Even as uproar over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) within a section fails to subside, fresh data from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has revealed that more than 18,000 people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh obtained Indian citizenship in the last five years.
According to the statistics placed in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, while replying to a query, as many as 665 persons from Afghanistan, 2,668 from Pakistan and 15,012 from Bangladesh were given Indian citizenship from 2015 to 2019. This comes to a total of 18,345.
The figures include 14,864 Bangladeshi nationals who were residing in 53 enclaves of Bangladesh until 2015, who were given Indian citizenship after signing of the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement, 2015. As many as 809 Pakistani nationals were granted Indian citizenship in 2019.
In fact, in all, as many as 21,408 foreigners were given Indian citizenship from 2010 to 2019 and a majority of them were from these three countries, as per the figures.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was asked to provide details about the foreign nationals who obtained Indian citizenship. It was also sought to be known if Muslims from overseas could now be provided Indian citizenship.
On the query over citizenship to foreign Muslims, Rai said: “All the legal migrants could be provided Indian citizenship irrespective of their religion under the Citizenship Act 1955 after completing all the formalities. There is no change in the current process to obtain Indian citizenship.”
Records of persons granted citizenship of India are maintained as per the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and various rules under it, Rai said, adding, these records were not maintained religion-wise.
He also provided information about Bangladeshis who were living in India illegally and were later deported. “Actions were taken to send back the illegal Bangladeshis and 308 people in 2016, 51 in 2017 and 445 in 2018 were deported,” he said.