1. Introduction
There are two classes of people in any modern country – citizens and aliens.
♤ A citizen of a given state is a person who enjoys full membership of the political community or the State. He/she enjoy all civil and political rights in that state.
♤ An alien or mere resident is person who is a citizen of some other political community or State. Thus, he/she do not enjoy all the rights which go to make full membership of the State. Aliens are of two types:
o Friendly aliens- Those aliens which are citizens of friendly countries.
o Enemy aliens- Those aliens which are citizens of enemy countries. The enemy aliens are denied some of the rights that the friendly aliens enjoy.
In this context, the Citizens of India have the following rights conferred to them by the Constitution of India, which are not available to aliens-
♤ Some Fundamental Rights belong to citizen alone, such as-
o Article 15- Right against discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
o Article 16- Right to equality of opportunity in the matter of public employment.
o Article 18(2)- No citizen of India will accept any title from any of the foreign States.
o Article 19- Right to freedom of speech and expression, assembly, association, movement, residence and profession.
o Article 29- Protection of interests of minorities
o Article 30- Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions
♤ Only citizens are eligible for certain offices, such as-
o The President of India
o The Vice-President of India
o The Judge of Supreme Court of India
o The Judge of High Court in the states.
o The Governor of a state.
o The Attorney General of India.
o The Advocate General of the state.
♤ Only citizens hold the right to vote in elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies.
♤ Only citizens have the right to become a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Parliament and
Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the State legislatures.
However, apart from enjoying these exclusive rights, the citizens also need to fulfill certain duties towards the Indian State, as for example, paying taxes, respecting the national flag and national anthem, defending the country and so on.