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On December 19th, for the 7th day in a row large-scale protests took place in India following the introduction of a Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
CAA is a law that grants citizenship to religious minorities – except Muslims – from neighboring countries. The new citizenship law, which was an amendment to a 1955 legislation, allows Indian citizenship to “persecuted” minorities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but makes no reference to Muslims.
The legislation was pushed through India’s Parliament by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ratified by President Ram Nath Kovind on December 12th. Critics point out that the move is part of a Hindu supremacist agenda pushed by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since it came to power nearly six years ago.
The law, first introduced in Parliament in July 2016, amends the Citizenship Act 1955 by making religion a basis for citizenship. The previous law did not make religion an eligibility criterion to become a citizen. The bill was passed in the Indian Parliament in January 2019, but could not be taken up in the Upper House, following protests in the northeastern states and resistance from the opposition.
The major criticism of the law has been that it prevents Muslims from seeking citizenship.
Since the protests against the bill began the intensity of protests, as well as the response by authorities have been ramping up.
Protest against #CitizenAmendmentBill in India is getting intense and aggressive with each day. #CABPolitics #assamprotests pic.twitter.com/5MtauNaryz
— Global Politics? (@Globalpoliticss) December 15, 2019
Anti-Citizen Amendment Act protest turns violent in #Delhi.#ITVideo
More videos: https://t.co/wMGGKJy9GN pic.twitter.com/WV5vCfR4LI— India Today (@IndiaToday) December 15, 2019
India: Delhi metro station JMI closed due to protests against the new Citizenship Act | Dec 14 2019 pic.twitter.com/ZVRruoZzXq
— redball (@redball2) December 14, 2019
#narendramodi #bjp is this a new India where no one can protest against Govt.???#rahulghandi pic.twitter.com/c7pfzKWTQ8
— takhia dolo (@takhiadolo1) December 12, 2019
7 trains have been torched in Bengal causing a loss of about 50 crores.
Traitors & infiltrators causing loss of life & property must be shot at Sight.
IAS deserter @naukarshah who is one of the instigators of the so called protests must be brought to justice by @NIA_India pic.twitter.com/iCVw0tUKKJ
— LiberatePOK (@LiberatePOK) December 15, 2019
This is not Indian Occupied Kashmir!!
This is at NH-117 at Howrah near Kolkata, India.A protest against CitizenshipAct is increasing.#FreeIoK #KashmirGenocide #KashmirBleeds #KillerModhi #HitlerModhi #CitizenshipAct#DeltaFoxtrot#TeamPakistanStrategicForum pic.twitter.com/8zIaEhi9kz
— Pakistan Strategic Forum (@ForumStrategic) December 15, 2019
In an attempt to counter the protests, police enforced a ban prohibiting any more than four people from assembling at a given location.
Regardless, in the regions of Bangalore, Delhi, Patna and others tens of thousands of people took to the streets.
The government is furthermore attempting to impose an internet blackout. With telecom companies and internet service providers shut down their data services throughout the week in the regions with the most intense protests.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in parts of India as authorities impose internet blackouts in an effort to end mass protests against a controversial citizenship law that has rocked the country for the past week https://t.co/Q9FQakzWxl pic.twitter.com/OVxLTyotqO
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 19, 2019
The protests were the most intense on December 15th, compared to December 19th, however they keep going.
On December 19th, three people died after being shot by authorities in the violent protests in the southern Indian city of Mangalore. This brought the death toll to 9, with 6 more being killed during earlier protests in the northeastern state of Assam, which was the epicenter of unrest leading up to December 15th.
“Our paranoid rulers in Delhi are fearful. Our Home Minister would not dare allow a peaceful protest,” Modi critic Ramachandra Guha said after police detained him at a protest in Bangalore. “Everyone should stand up; the entrepreneurs of Bangalore should stand up. Do they want this image to go around, that we are a quasi-dictatorship? We are here to assert our democratic rights.”
@Ram_Guha at a peaceful protest in Town Hall #Bengaluru: our paranoid rulers in Delhi are scared#Section144 #CAAProtest pic.twitter.com/JQ26G4ienj
— Arpita Raj (@arpitaraj92) December 19, 2019
The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath said the state would take “revenge” by seizing properties and auctioning them to recover damages from protesters who took part in violence.
It should be reminded that these actions by the Indian government follow the unilateral decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir from their special status, with many critics claiming that this was in order to carry out a purge against Muslims in the regions.
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Immigrants usually only have human rights as part of generally accepted principles of intl. law. To assert however that they also have a claim in citizenship has no precedence or basis. Each country is sovereign to decide who its citizens are.
Given that India is generous enough by affording ANOTHER pathway to citizenship to immigrants, the constitutionality or legality of the law would rest upon the issue of whether or not a distinction can be made in this case or not and whether such distinction is necessary. This will definitely be decided by the courts
Goodjob India, less Muslim means a more secured India. Israel should do the same, we don’t need more Muslims here.
I dont like this law, as if india didnt have class problems already, not we have 2 classes of immigrants as well.
I support india’s muslim population in this situation.
Just part of the US/UK media war on Russia, China and India. Cut the competition down before they find their feet and become “first world”. Take a different look.
Asia Times | India’s citizenship act is not discriminatory | Article