India now grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists

India’s lower house passed a controversial legislation early Tuesday that will grant citizenship to religious minorities from neighboring countries, but not Muslims, amid raucous scenes in parliament and protests in the country’s northeast.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill provides that Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians fleeing persecution in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan can be granted citizenship.

It comfortably passed the lower house with 311 votes in favour and 80 against just after midnight.

“This bill is in line with India’s centuries old ethos of assimilation and belief in humanitarian values,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, adding that he was “delighted” about its passage.

But to Muslim organisations, rights groups and others, the bill is part of Modi’s push to marginalize India’s 200-million-strong Islamic minority

— a claim he and his government deny.

“This is not a bill that is discriminatory,” Home Minister Amit Shah said. “This is a bill to give rights, not to take them away from anybody.”

Modi’s government had tried to shepherd the legislation through parliament during its first term in power, but it failed in the upper house, where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies lack a majority.

After sweeping to victory in the April-May national elections, the BJP is now more confident it can push the bill through both chambers.

During a lengthy debate marked by angry exchanges, opposition Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor said the bill “infringes upon the principle of equality before law” guaranteed to all persons, including non-citizens.

The legislation seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955, which prohibits illegal migrants from applying for Indian citizenship.