CAB Ignores Lakhs Of Tamil And Tibetan Refugees

Lakhs of Buddhist and Hindu refugees from Sri Lanka and Tibet, who are currently living in India, have not been given a place in the new citizenship law. This clearly implies that neither do these people want to go back nor is India willing to accept them.

According to the Home Ministry report of the year 2018-2019, around 304,269 Tamil refugees came to India after fleeing the civil war in Sri Lanka between July 1983 and August 2012. Among these, around 60,674 refugees are living in around 107 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. Apart from these, around 35,155 people are living outside refugee camps.

Also, more than 1 lakh people from the Tibetan community are living in India. Both these communities have been kept outside the ambit of the new citizenship law. 

The new citizenship bill makes provisions for people belonging to six minority communities (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, Christian and Sikh) from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan to be given Indian citizenship.

Meanwhile, the Opposition has, since the beginning, alleged that the aim of the new citizenship law is only to encourage communal politics and not to help people.

On the other hand, the matter of giving citizenship to Tamil Hindus has picked up steam. DMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, has demanded that Tamil refugees should be included in CAB. Religious guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has also supported this demand.

The Bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha and questions are now being raised over whether the government is ignoring Tamil and Tibetan refugees or is the motive of the new law just to target Muslims.