Is a Developing Country like India’s Citizenship Legislation Really: A Befitting Epitome to Decipher Immigrant’s Fate Righteously
Ideal Institute of Management and Technology, Karkardooma, India.
Volume III, Issue V, 2020
India, a country that has an age old principle of practicing ‘Atithi devo bhavah’ , literally translates to ‘Guest must be treated like Almighty himself’ suggesting the underlying forces of the host–guest bond which exemplifies the customary Indian Hindu-Buddhist beliefs of worship of the guests just as God. India has hence applied the same principle of humanitarian safeguard to refugees and asylum seekers despite not being a signatory to international legal documents such as the Convention Relating to Status of Refugees, 1951 nor has a domestic, legal instrument to deal with the refugees. India has followed a very liberal refugee policy by implying provisions of existing acts in the state such as the Foreigners Act, 1946, Passport Act, 1920, Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 along its own arbitrary arrangements. Nonetheless, the absenteeism of a refugee explicit regulation has attributed to the country’s fickle standing in South Asian political affairs and the menace of terrorism encountered by it. India notwithstanding its legal apprehensions, chiefly in the past couple of decades, and the stress of over-population and demographic imbalance has attended to hamper economic balance in the state, as India carries on taking a humanitarian view of the problem of refugees dealing with them without constructing a mandate that is both in favor of the refugees and the state. The essence and subject matters of the United Nations and International Conventions on the topic have, by and large, are inculcated by both the executive and judicial involvement. India has progressed to maintain a practical equilibrium amid human and humanitarian commitments but has failed to evolve the security and national interest so far.