RAS question
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 provides a pathway to citizenship for persecuted minorities from which of the following countries?
Correct answer: (A) Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 covers Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014.
Explanation
The key point is the country list, not a broad refugee rule. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 names only three countries for this pathway: Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It applies to persons belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from those countries who entered India on or before 31 December 2014, subject to the legal conditions stated in the Act. That is why option A is the only complete match. The other options keep Pakistan and Bangladesh but replace Afghanistan with a country that the Act does not name, so they change the statutory coverage and become wrong.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Myanmar is not one of the three countries named in the Act; the third covered country is Afghanistan.
- (C) Nepal is not covered by this CAA pathway, while Afghanistan is expressly included with Bangladesh and Pakistan.
- (D) Sri Lanka is outside the country list in the Act, which is limited here to Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Concept
This tests the citizenship provisions under Indian polity, especially statutory amendments to the Citizenship Act. It recurs in RAS because the exam often asks exact constitutional and governance facts where one substituted country changes the answer.