New Delhi: Four years after the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was enacted, the Narendra Modi government on Monday, March 11, notified necessary rules for the law to be implemented.Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Union home minister Amit Shah said:The Modi government today notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024.These rules will now enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in our nation.With this notification PM Shri @narendramodi Ji has…— Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AmitShah) March 11, 2024However, without rules being framed, the Act could not be implemented.CAA Rules by The WireEarlier, in a statement released on X (formerly Twitter), the Union home minister had said, “The applications (for citizenship) will be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided.”Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will be notifying today, the Rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019). These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for grant of Indian citizenship. (1/2)— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) March 11, 2024The CAA aims to provide citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians purportedly fleeing persecution from India’s Muslim-majority neighbours – namely, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh – and who arrived in India before 2015.The exclusion of Muslims from the provisions of the legislation and fears that it would disenfranchise many Muslims in India when combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) had drawn widespread protests from thousands of citizens across the country.Despite the protests and violence that ensued, the government notified the law in January December 2020.Home affairs minister Amit Shah said last month that the rules for the CAA would be notified before the general elections, which are expected to take place between April and May this year.Moments after the home affairs ministry’s statement on X, the BJP also issued a statement on the social media platform, calling the ministry’s decision a “watershed moment in the history of India”.A watershed moment in the history of India.Heartfelt thanks for making CAA a reality! pic.twitter.com/T36zZRLeAs— BJP (@BJP4India) March 11, 2024Opposition parties, however, hit out at the BJP government for notifying the rules just weeks ahead of the general elections.Addressing a press conference in Kolkata before the home ministry’s announcement, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that her Trinamool Congress party, which has opposed the CAA in the past, will first study its rules to see if it is depriving people of their rights.“Let me see the rules first. I am just watching. The notification and rules are not out yet. Once they are out, we will see if [people] … are being deprived of their rights under the rules, then we will fight against it. Let us study it properly first,” she said.Banerjee continued: “But this is the BJP’s publicity for elections, it is nothing else. This law was passed in 2020 and since then, four years have passed. Now that elections are coming, they have brought this, but it will not benefit anyone.”Congress MP and general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said that the four years and three months taken by the Modi government to notify the rules “is yet another demonstration of the Prime Minister’s blatant lies”.Ramesh questioned the timing of the notification of the rules before the elections, calling it an attempt to “polarise” and said it was a bid to manage headlines after the Supreme Court dismissed the State Bank of India’s plea earlier in the day seeking more time to furnish details relating to electoral bonds.दिसंबर 2019 में संसद द्वारा पारित नागरिकता संशोधन अधिनियम के नियमों को अधिसूचित करने में मोदी सरकार को चार साल और तीन महीने लग गए। प्रधानमंत्री दावा करते हैं कि उनकी सरकार बिल्कुल प्रोफेशनल ढंग से और समयबद्ध तरीक़े से काम करती है। सीएए के नियमों को अधिसूचित करने में लिया गया इतना…— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 11, 2024In a post in Hindi on X, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “When the citizens of the country are forced to go out for livelihood, then what will happen by bringing ‘citizenship law’ for others?”Reacting to the announcement, Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi called it a “black day for Assam”.Calling Assamese people to fight the Act’s implementation in the state, Gogoi, former general secretary of the All Assam Students’ Union, said on X: “This Act will crush the identity, land and cultural rights of the community.”He accused the BJP of seeking the votes of the Assamese community to protect their rights but ending up giving it the biggest blow.“BJP’s leaders from Assam like Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma failed to convince their central government to keep Assam out of the CAA … it is a black day for Assam … I urge people to get ready to fight this Act.”Act still sub-judiceA bunch of petitions challenging the legal validity of the CAA are pending before the Supreme Court.In October, the Union government submitted an affidavit in the court defending the law and calling it a “benign piece of legislation”.Some prominent lawyers also pointed out that the CAA’s implementation was a sub-judice matter.Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, who served as court-appointed interlocutor during protests against the CAA in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh in 2020, told the Press Trust of India that it was “surprising” that the Union government “did not find time earlier to notify the CAA rules”.“The Act has been challenged in the Supreme Court, there has been no specific stay, the matter hasn’t been heard for some time. In the meanwhile, the rules have been notified and I am sure that in respect of the implementation of rules, there will be appropriate petitions filed,” he was quoted as saying.Hegde added: “It is possible that the government wanted to notify these rules before the Model Code of Conduct comes into play.”Supreme Court advocate M.R. Shamshad also told PTI that the government “should have exercised some restraint” on notifying the rules.“As far as implementation (of CAA) is concerned, this matter is already sub judice. On the face of it, the amendment of 2019 is very discriminatory and arbitrary as it excludes people of a specific community,” Shamshad told the news agency.He added: “Since there is no stay on it from the Supreme Court, the government should have exercised some restraint.”Protests against law rocked Assam, DelhiThe legislation is well-known for the protests it sparked in 2019 and early 2020 that killed dozens and involved damages to property worth hundreds of crores of rupees.They began in early 2019 in Assam when the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill.Concerned that the Bill would cement the presence of Bangladeshi immigrants in the state, altering its demographic makeup and increasing competition for jobs, protesters torched BJP offices and surrounded the state secretariat on many occasions.But the government went ahead with the Bill, enacting it into law in December.One reason behind its persistence was that a census exercise conducted in Assam to sift citizens from illegal immigrants ended up classifying many Bengali Hindus – a significant source of support for the BJP – into the latter group.Protests also occurred outside Assam, although in this instance responding to the Act’s use of religion to grant amnesty.This included a sit-in in Shaheen Bagh that went on for 101 days until it was removed by authorities in March 2020 due to COVID-19 norms.Towards the end of the protests, a threat issued to an anti-CAA procession in Delhi by a BJP state legislator sparked riots that saw scores of deaths and hundreds of injuries.This is a developing story.