Raging arguments over who was indeed Indian were put to rest with a vote that spoke in favour of an Article 5 without religious markers.
P.S. Deshmukh had been famously disappointed with the job the drafting committee had done with the citizenship provision. The year was 1949.
He had thought that Dr. Ambedkar’s definition of citizenship would make “Indian citizenship the cheapest on earth.” His grouse had been with citizenship by birth. If the draft Article was to be accepted, even a child born of a lady while she was transiting through the Bombay port would get citizenship, he argued.
Deshmukh had asked for at least two amendments.
First, just being born in India shouldn’t be sufficient, the child should be born to Indian parents. Next, all Hindus and Sikhs, residing anywhere in the world should be entitled to Indian citizenship.
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