Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies (2021) 2709-5479 "Assam bandh protesters' roadblock" by Carsten ten Brink is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND. The Pernicious Outcomes of the Altering Equation of Citizenship in Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 The enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, has various pros and cons. Shitole (2020) mentioned that many pro-groups and anti-groups are involved in the discussions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. Pro-groups see the Act as a step into protecting vulnerable religious groups. As explicitly seen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh have a proven track record in the persecution of religious minorities, which can be seen as a continuous decrease in the minority population since the 1950s. Due to which millions of religious minorities have not only lost their freedom but also risked their lives and escaped to take refuge in the neighbouring countries. Some of them also came to India and had been struggling for their existence for decades. According to pro-groups, as a democratic nation, India has a moral obligation to not only protect such vulnerable refugees and migrants but also to assist and care for them. Justifying the Act on this basis, pro-groups consider it to be a 'special class of religious minorities or minority-based classifications' (Shitole, 2020), not a religion-based classification. Anti-groups have questioned the adoption of 'religion' (Shitole, 2020) as a citizenship rule in this Act, which is clearly visible from the inclusion of some groups and exclusion of others. India is a secular nation, and 'secularism' comes under the basic foundation of the Indian Constitution. And the explicit introduction of 'religion' in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is entirely against the character of India's Constitution. The crux of the issue is the 'fundamental right to equality.' Part III of India's © 2021 Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies 3 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3898542