Lucknow University to include CAA in its political science syllabus

Lucknow University will include the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as a topic in its syllabus under the political science subject, the university administration stated on Friday.

The Head of Department (HoD) of Lucknow University's Political Science department, Shashi Shukla, said, "Under the political science subject, we will introduce CAA. This is the most important topic right now and so it should be studied.

He added that the topic will include what, why, and how the citizenship law was amended.

The CAA grants Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Massive protests have erupted across the country against the new citizenship law. Critics say that the new law is against the secular nature of the Indian Constitution and clubbed with the NRC may be misused to strip away some Muslims' citizenship in the country. The BJP, however, has argued that the law has nothing to do with India's Muslims and only helps those who fled religious persecution in the neighbouring countries.