Guest Post December
16, 2019
Four people have already been
killed by police in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, seen by
many as a step towards establishing India as a Hindu majority country.
(By Peoples Dispatch) Across India, tens of thousands of
people have hit the streets against the discriminatory and controversial
Citizenship Amendment Act (earlier known as the Citizenship Amendment Bill or
the CAB*), which provides citizenship based on religion. The Indian state has
responded with violent repression to the protests against the recently passed
law. Yesterday, a protester was shot dead by the police in the northeastern
state of Assam, taking the number of people killed in protests against the law
to four.
The protests are particularly
intense in the states of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura, which
lie close to Bangladesh and have historically faced an influx of migrants from
across the border.
In New Delhi, massive protests
against the law were held at India Gate and Jamia Millia Islamia on December
12.
The amendment to citizenship
act allows Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Sikhs and Christians who suffered religious
persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and who arrived in India
before December 31, 2014, to apply for citizenship. Earlier, they would have
been classified as ‘illegal immigrants’ and been barred from applying. However,
Muslim refugees continue to fall under the category of illegal immigrants.
Critics have pointed out that the law aims at establishing a Hindu majoritarian
country, relegating the Muslim minorities to second-class citizen status. They
have also pointed out that the ruling far-right wing Bharatiya Janata Party is
using this law to mobilize the Hindu majority of the country against Muslims,
branding them as outsiders.
As the civilian unrest
escalates, curbs have been put on media coverage of the protests with
restrictions on internet and cell phone services. Curfew has also been imposed
in many northeastern states, and the military has also been deployed in the
region in a bid to suppress the growing protests. This seems to be the new
normal in India under the far-right government led by Narendra Modi.
"Hum le ke rahenge
Azadi"
Huge rally against NRC and CAB lead by @kanhaiyakumar in Purnia, Bihar. #CAAProtests #CABProtests
Huge rally against NRC and CAB lead by @kanhaiyakumar in Purnia, Bihar. #CAAProtests #CABProtests
The CAB is seen as
supplementary to a proposed all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC)
exercise, which aims at identifying and detaining ‘illegal immigrants.’
The NRC exercise carried out
in Assam led to more than 1.9 million people being declared as illegal or
aliens in India, rendering them stateless. Hundreds were sent to detention
camps, termed by many as concentration camps. According to reports, around 26
people have already died in these detention camps.
Scholars and activists in
India have denounced that the CAB and the NRC are part of a larger plan by
the far-right forces in the country to destroy the secular fabric of India by
providing privileges to the Hindu majority. The Hindus disenfranchised under
the NRC exercise have been effectively given an out under CAB, which has,
however, been denied to the Muslims.
The Communist Party of India
(Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary
Socialist Party have issued a joint statement, calling the NRC-CAB “completely
violative of the Indian Constitution and aimed at destroying the secular
democratic foundations of the Indian Republic.”
The parties have also called
for nationwide popular protests on December 19, the date when Ram Prasad
Bismil, a national hero of the independence struggle, was hanged at the
Gorakhpur jail in 1927.
The governments of three
Indian States, West Bengal, Punjab and communist-ruled Kerala, have also
rejected the ‘anti-constitutional’ act and declared that they will not
implement CAB or the NRC.
“The spirit of our
Constitution is based on secularism and Modi government is trying to undermine
secular characteristics of our Constitution by passing the bill. The CAB will
divide the nation on the basis of religion and caste,” said Pinarayi Vijayan,
chief minister of Kerala, on Thursday.
I hope my little girl grows up
to be as brave as the young women who have been at the forefront of protests
against oppression. #CAAProtests
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