NEW DELHI (AP) — India has introduced a controversial citizenship law who was widely criticized for excluding Muslims, a minority community whose concerns have intensified under the prime minister To Narendra Modi A Hindu nationalist government.
The rules for the law were announced on Monday. It establishes a religious test for migrants from any major South Asian religion other than Islam. Critics say the law is further evidence that the Modi government is trying to reshape the country into a Hindu state and marginalize its 200 million Muslims.
WHAT IS THE NEW CITIZENSHIP LAW?
The Citizenship Amendment Act provides fast-track naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 31 December 2014. The Act excludes Muslims who are majority in all three nations.
It also amends an old law that prevented illegal migrants from becoming Indian citizens, and marks the first time India – an officially secular country with a religiously diverse population – has set religious criteria for citizenship.
The Indian government said those eligible can apply for Indian citizenship through an online portal.
Enforcement of the law was one of the key promises of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to general elections due by May.
The Modi government rejected the idea that the law was discriminatory and defended it as a humanitarian gesture. He argued that the law was only intended to extend citizenship to religious minorities fleeing persecution and would not be used against Indian citizens.
WHAT MAKES THE LAW SO CONTROVERSIAL?
Police stop students trying to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Guwahati, India, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)
The law was approved by India’s parliament in 2019, but Modi’s government delayed its implementation after deadly protests erupted in New Delhi and elsewhere. Dozens were killed during days of clashes.
Nationwide protests in 2019 drew people of all faiths who said the law undermined India’s foundation as a secular nation. Muslims were particularly worried that the government might use the law, coupled with a proposed national register of citizens, to marginalize them.
The National Register of Citizens is part of the Modi government’s efforts to identify and weed out people it claims have come to India illegally. The registry is only implemented in the northeastern state of Assambut Modi’s party has promised to introduce a similar citizenship verification program across the country.
Critics and Muslim groups say the new citizenship law will help protect non-Muslims who are excluded from the registry, while Muslims could face the threat of deportation or internment.
WHY ARE MUSLIMS IN INDIA WORRIED?
Opponents of the law – including Muslims, opposition parties and human rights groups – say it is exclusionary and violates the secular principles enshrined in the constitution. They say that faith cannot be a condition of citizenship.
On Monday, human rights group Amnesty India said the law “legitimises discrimination based on religion”.
Some also argued that if the law was meant to protect persecuted minorities, then it should have included Muslim religious minorities who were persecuted in their own countries, including Ahmadis in Pakistan and Rohingyas in Myanmar.
For critics, Modi is pushing a Hindu nationalist agenda that threatens to undermine the country’s secular foundation, narrow the space for religious minorities, especially Muslims, and push the country closer to a Hindu nation.
India is home to 200 million Muslims, who make up a large minority group in the country of over 1.4 billion people. They are spread across almost every part of India and have been the target of a series of attacks since Modi first took power in 2014.
Dozens of Muslims were lynched by Hindu mobs because of accusations of eating beef or smuggling cows, an animal considered sacred to Hindus. Muslim businesses have been boycotted, their the localities were destroyed with bulldozers and burnt places of worship. There were some open invitations made for their genocide.
Critics say Modi’s apparent silence on anti-Muslim violence has emboldened some of his most extreme supporters and allowed more hate speech against Muslims.
Moreover, Modi has increasingly mixed religion with politics in a formula that resonates deeply with India’s predominantly Hindu population. In January, it opened a Hindu temple on the site of a destroyed mosque in the northern city of Ayodhyaperforming his party a long-held Hindu nationalist promise.
