- Just weeks before the elections, the Indian government announced rules implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 that excludes Muslims.
- The law was passed in 2019, but implementation was delayed after deadly protests raised concerns from people of all faiths.
- The government defends the law as humanitarian, but critics say it institutionalizes religious discrimination and violates human rights principles.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Monday announced rules implementing a 2019 citizenship law that excludes Muslims, weeks before the Hindu nationalist leader seeks a third term in power.
The Citizenship Amendment Act provides naturalization to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan by December 31, 2014. It provides a shortcut. This law excludes Muslims. The majority in all three countries.
The law was approved by India’s parliament in 2019, but the Modi government did not implement it after deadly protests broke out in the capital, New Delhi, and elsewhere. Many people were killed in the days-long clashes.
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Nationwide protests in 2019 included people of all faiths who said the law undermined India’s foundations as a secular nation. Muslims were particularly concerned that the government could use the law, in conjunction with the civil registration proposal, to marginalize Muslims.
An Indian man raises his bound hands and shouts a slogan during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in New Delhi, India, December 27, 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Monday announced implementation rules for the 2019 citizenship law that critics say are discriminatory against Muslims, weeks before the Hindu nationalist leader seeks a third term in power. announced. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)
The National Register of Citizens is part of the Modi government’s efforts to identify and remove people who it claims have entered India illegally. The registration system is only in place in the northeastern state of Assam, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has promised to roll out a similar citizenship verification program nationwide.
The Modi government has defended the 2019 citizenship law as a humanitarian measure. It claims the law is only intended to extend citizenship to religious minorities fleeing persecution and cannot be used against Indian citizens.
“These rules will enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to obtain citizenship in our country,” Home Minister Amit Shah wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Ta.
India’s main opposition party, the National Congress Party, questioned the announcement, saying the “timing so close to elections is clearly designed to polarize the elections.”
Human rights watchdog Amnesty India said in a statement that the law is “discriminatory” and “contrary to constitutional values of equality and international human rights law.” It said the law “justifies discrimination on the basis of religion” and is “exclusionary in its structure and intent.”
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India is home to 200 million Muslims, making up a large minority in a country of more than 1.4 billion people. They are scattered across much of India and have been the target of a series of attacks since Mr. Modi first came to power in 2014.
Critics say Prime Minister Modi’s conspicuous silence on anti-Muslim violence has emboldened some of his most extreme supporters and enabled an increase in hate speech against Muslims.
Prime Minister Modi is increasingly mixing religion and politics, a style that resonates with India’s Hindu majority. In January, he opened a Hindu temple on the site of a destroyed mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, fulfilling his party’s long-held Hindu nationalist promise.
Most opinion polls predict that Mr. Modi will win a majority in the general election to be held by May.
