Modi defends controversial citizenship law after 21 die in protests across India
NARENDRA MODI, the Indian prime minister, has defended his Hindu nationalist government’s new citizenship law in an attempt to counter countrywide protests that have seen 21 people killed in clashes with police.
“We passed this (citizenship) bill to help the persecuted (non-muslims),” Mr Modi declared at a rally in New Delhi yesterday. He accused opposition parties of spreading lies that it had been enacted to take away people’s nationality rights.
In an emotionally charged address he said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would not abrogate the citizenship entitlements of India’s 200 million-strong Muslim minority.
“Muslims who are sons of the soil and whose ancestors are the children of Mother India need not to worry” about the law and his plans for a national register of citizens, he said.
Accusing the main opposition Congress party of condoning the recent violence by not condemning it, Mr Modi said opponents were “spreading rumours that all Muslims will be sent to detention camps”.
The act, which was endorsed last weekend, offers citizenship to all nonmuslim illegal immigrants, including Hindus, Sikhs and Christians, who fled to India from the Muslim-majority states of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015.
Tens of thousands of people across India have demonstrated against the act, claiming it goes against India’s ancient and inclusive secular culture as well as its constitution, which stipulates that religion is not a prerequisite for citizenship.
The demonstrations led the authorities to shut down internet and mobile phone messaging services in places including the federal capital New Delhi, for several hours last week.
The protests have been worst in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which is ruled by Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), where at least 15 people, including an eight- year old boy, have died.
Demonstrators claim the majority of those killed died during police gunfire, though authorities denied these claims.
Around 2,000 protesters, including prominent historians, intellectuals, writers and lawyers were taken into preventive police custody, with the majority released a short while later.
Police were criticised for using “disproportionate force”, including baton charges and tear gas, against protesters, including on university campuses in Delhi and other north Indian towns.
Video footage that went viral on social media earlier this week showed police, often using thick bamboo sticks, kicking and assaulting students, in bathrooms, libraries and their hostel
‘Muslims who are sons of the soil and whose ancestors are the children of Mother India need not to worry’
rooms at Delhi’s Jamia Milina University.
Six students from Aligarh Muslim University, 100 miles south of Delhi, were taken to hospital with serious injuries due to police beatings, with one having his right hand amputated.
Doctors at the same hospital fear two other students may have to undergo limb amputations for similar reasons, the Indian Express newspaper reported yesterday.
Police said they had acted with restraint and used “minimal force”. They were defended by Mr Modi who said they needed to maintain order.
Meanwhile, the BJP is launching a nationwide “outreach” programme over the next 10 days designed to educate the public about the CAA.
This will include senior BJP MPS and leaders holding 250 news conferences, some 1,000 rallies, and interactions with some 30 million families.