Indian govt enforces ‘anti-Muslim’ citizenship law ahead of polls

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led far-right Hindu nationalist BJP government Monday announced rules to implement the “anti-Muslim” Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, international media reported.

Passed in 2019 by BJP’s government, the controversial law allows Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from India’s neighbouring countries.

Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from mainly Muslim countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before December 31, 2014, are eligible for Indian citizenship under the law. The move comes just weeks before PM Modi seeks a rare third term for his Hindu nationalist government.

Several rights groups have declared the law “anti-Muslim” for keeping Muslims out of its ambit, raising questions over the secular nature of India. Despite the passage of the bill in December 2019, the Modi’s government had not drafted the rules for the law following nationwide protests.

Amid protests over the bill, violence broke out in the capital, New Delhi, in which numerous people — mostly Muslims — were killed and hundreds were injured.

According to a Reuters news agency report on Monday: “The Modi government announces implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act.

It was an integral part of BJP’s 2019 [election] manifesto. This will pave [the] way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India,” a government representative said.

Muslim groups say the law, combined with a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), can discriminate against India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community – the world’s third-largest Muslim population. They fear the government might remove the citizenship of Muslims without documents in some border states.

The government denies accusations that it is anti-Muslim and has defended the law, saying it is needed to help minorities facing persecution in Muslim-majority nations.

It says the law is meant to grant citizenship, not take it away from anyone, and has called the earlier protests politically motivated.