2021 STATELESSNESS AND THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT, 2019 159 citizenship.8 The Tamil Nadu government have been trying to find a middle ground in terms of citizenship for these refugees,9 including the potential introduction of dual citizenship proposals.10 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees’ unsuccessful attempts at acquiring Indian citizenship have made them fearful of the repercussions of the 2019 Act, especially the possibility of deportation.11 The adverse impact of the 2019 Act proves to be even more lethal if one considers that Indian law does not take cognisance of its responsibilities towards stateless persons in its territory, and there seems to be no political will to alter this predicament.12 Statelessness is an extremely vulnerable experience that robs such individuals of the right to a social or political community, or to access rights under domestic law as compared to citizens.13 The most recent example of this vulnerability has been in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, where the government has made vaccines available free of cost only to Indian citizens.14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Sitharamam Kakarala and others, India and the Challenge of Statelessness: A Review of the Legal Framework Relating to Nationality (NLUD Press 2012); Gireesh Babu, ‘There will be Process to Give Citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees: FM’ (Business Standard, 19 January 2020) <https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/there-will-be-process-to-give-citizenship-to-sri-lankan-tamil-refugees-fm-120011900335_1.html> accessed 28 July 2021. PTI, ‘DMK will Continue to Resist CAA, Support Citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamils: MK Stalin’ (The Indian Express, 14 March 2021) <https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamilnadu/2021/mar/14/dmk-will-continue-to-resistcaa-support-citizenship-for-sri-lankan-tamilsmk-stalin-2276499.html> accessed 28 July 2021. B Sivakumar, ‘Possible for Lankan Tamils to get Dual Citizenship’ (The Times of India, 19 February 2020) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/possible-for-lankan-tamils-to-get-dual-citizenship-aiadmk/articleshow/74207177.cms> accessed 28 July 2021; Web Desk, ‘CAA: AIADMK Reiterates Request for Dual Citizenship for Lankan Tamil Refugees’ (The Week, 6 January 2020) <https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2020/01/06/caa-aiadmk-reiterates-request-for-dual-citizenship-to-lankan-tamil-refugees.html> accessed 28 July 2021; however, some commentators are sceptical of this suggestion as in V Suryanarayan, ‘Dual Citizenship for Refugees is Impractical’ (The Indian Express, 12 March 2021) <https:// www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2021/mar/12/dual-citizenship-for-refugeesis-impractical-2275468.html> accessed 28 July 2021. KA Shaji, ‘CAA: Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees Say the New Law has Killed their Hopes of Citizenship’ (Huffpost, 22 December 2019) <https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/citizenship-amendment-act-sri-lankan-tamil-refugees_in_5dff246ce4b05b08bab6aff2> accessed 28 July 2021. Shuvro Sarker, Refugee Law in India: The Road from Ambiguity to Protection (Palgrave Macmillan 2017); Angshuman Choudhury, Why is the Indian State Shockingly Blind to the Problem of Statelessness? (Scroll.in, 30 October 2019) <https://scroll.in/article/940712/why-isthe-indian-state-shockingly-blind-to-the-problem-of-statelessness> accessed 28 July 2021. Charlotte-Anne Malischewski, ‘Legal Brief on Statelessness: Law in the Indian Context’ in Calcutta Research Group, Statelessness in Law: Two Assessments, Policies and Practices, No. 60 [2014]. UNHCR, The Impact of COVID-19 on Stateless Populations: Policy Recommendations and Good Practices on Vaccine Access and Civil Registration (2021).