NEW DELHI -- An Indian citizenship law decried by critics as anti-Muslim is back in the spotlight over four years after it cleared parliament, amid signs that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party is eager to implement it before elections it is favored to win in April and May.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019, popularly known as the CAA, aims to fast-track citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian immigrants who fled religious persecution in the neighboring Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The law was included in the manifestos of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for the last two elections, in which it scored massive victories, and was approved in the legislature in December 2019.
