Regional party quits BJP govt in Assam over citizenship row
new delhi — A small regional party in India quit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling coalition on Monday, protesting against his bid to give citizenship to hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims from neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh.
Modi said last week his government was determined to pass a bill in parliament to relax rules for Hindus and other non-Muslim minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to become citizens of India.
Critics have called the bill, to be discussed in parliament on Tuesday, an attempt by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to boost its Hindu voter base ahead of a national election due by May.
The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), based in the border state of Assam in India’s northeast, has become the fourth ally to quit the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the past year, for a variety of reasons.
Protests have erupted in recent months and on Monday in Assam, where a movement against illegal immigrants, of all religions, from Bangladesh has simmered for decades, with some residents blaming them for eating into their resources and job opportunities.
“The home minister clearly told us they will try to get this bill passed tomorrow, so there’s no question us staying with the BJP anymore,” AGP President Atul Bora told reporters in New Delhi.
The BJP has the numbers in the Assam assembly to stay in power in the state despite the AGP pullout, but the regional party could help galvanise anger amongst many ethnic Assamese opposed to giving citizenship to migrants who came to India after 1971.