Citizenship Provisions In Bangladesh – Economics – Free PDF Download

 Current Affair

• Citizenship Amendment Act
• Protests

Definition of the country- Constitution

• The Bangladesh Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on December 4, 1972
• It establishes the independent sovereign People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
• Unlike India’s Constitution, the Bangladesh Constitution’s commitment to socialism is explicitly mentioned.
• It would be a society in which rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedoms, equality and justice, political, economic and social will be secured to all citizens.

 State religion

• In 1977, the military dictator Ziaur Rahman removed the term “secular” from the Constitution.
• In 1988, President Hussain Muhammad Ershad got Article 2A inserted.
• It says the state religion of the republic is Islam but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony.
• The amendment was struck down by the Bangladesh High Court in 2005 and the Supreme Court in 2010.

Idea of state religion and secularism

• While Islam is the state religion, other religions have been given “equal status” and “equal rights” by the Constitution.
• Article 8(1) of the Bangladesh Constitution mentions secularism along with nationalism, democracy and socialism as fundamental principles of state policy.
• Unlike Pakistan’s Constitution, there is no Muslim qualification required for the office of President or other constitutional offices.

Freedom of religion

• Article 41 of the Bangladesh Constitution says every citizen has the right to profess, practice or propagate any religion.
• The provision is “subject to public order and morality”.
• Like India’s Article 26, Bangladesh’s Article 41(b) gives every religious community or denomination the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.
• Like India’s Article 28, Article 41(c) in Bangladesh lays down that no person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction of a religion other than one’s own.
• Bangladesh permits religious instruction but only of one’s own religion
• Article 28(1) is a replica of India’s Article 15.

Laws on citizenship

• Article 6 of the Constitution says citizenship in Bangladesh shall be regulated by law and people shall be known as “Bengalees as a nation”.
• In December 1972, a Presidential Order, Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions), conferred citizenship.

Non-Bangla speaking residents

• Many Urdu-speaking people who had supported Pakistan in the war became stateless with the creation of Bangladesh.
• Under an agreement among India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, close to 1,780,000 were repatriated to Pakistan, followed by about 1 lakh more subsequently.
• In 2008, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the citizenship of all Urdu-speaking citizens too.

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