Twenty Afghan Sikhs who applied for Indian citizenship online nearly 100 days ago have been granted citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019, Indian media reported on Monday.
These individuals are part of the first group to receive citizenship under the act in the past week in New Delhi.
Some of the applicants arrived in India as early as 1997 and have been living on long-term visas. Additionally, around 400 Afghan Sikhs have pending applications under the Citizenship Act of 1955, with some having entered India in 1992 after the fall of Afghanistan’s leftist government, The Hindu reported.
In 2009, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government eased Long Term Visa (LTV) norms for Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Afghanistan, enabling them to apply for citizenship under the 1955 Act.
Many Sikhs have petitioned the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to transfer their applications from the 1955 Act to the CAA, as the latter offers a better chance of obtaining citizenship, The Times of India reported.
Quoted by the Hindu, Fateh Singh, general secretary of the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society in New Delhi, said that he arrived in India in 1992 and has been living on an LTV, renewed every two years. He set up a camp at a gurdwara in Mahabir Nagar, West Delhi, to assist Sikh migrants in filing CAA applications.
Singh said that since the CAA Rules were notified on March 11, over 400 Afghan Sikhs have applied through the camp, with 20 receiving citizenship certificates within 100 days. “Now they can apply for an Indian passport,” Singh said.
Singh added that he remains a refugee as his application under the 1955 Act is still pending with the MHA, which is processing CAA applications more quickly. “Under the parent Act, multiple authorities, including State government officials, were involved. However, under CAA, the State government’s role has been removed, speeding up the process,” he said.
In December 2019, the Citizenship Act of 1955 was amended to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014. The amendment reduced the required continuous stay in India from 11 years to five years.
The Hindus and Sikhs left Afghanistan gradually over the years, with most of them leaving after the fall of the previous government in August 2021.
