Indian police fire blanks in fresh demos against citizenship bill

Police in India have fired blanks at protesters in the country’s northeast, in a fresh day of demonstrations against a contentious bill that seeks to grant citizenship only to non-Muslim immigrants from certain countries.

Thousands of protesters ignored a curfew in the northeastern Indian state of Assam on Thursday, as several thousand additional troops were deployed in the region to curb protests over the proposed citizenship law.

According to officials, 20 to 30 people have been wounded in the recent protests.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed for calm in a series of tweets. However, many would not be able to see Modi’s tweets because his government has suspended mobile internet services in different parts of the region.

The controversial legislation was passed 125-105 by the upper house of the Indian parliament on Wednesday. The lower house had passed it just after midnight on Tuesday. It will be sent to the president to be signed into law, with his approval seen as a formality.

The bill will let the Indian government grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants who entered India from three neighboring countries before 2015 — but not if they are Muslims.

Modi’s government says Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are excluded from the legislation.

This is while the Rohingya Muslim minority from Myanmar has faced genocide in that country and is now almost entirely camped in a non-state-recognized status in Bangladesh.

The opponents of the new legislation have threatened to challenge it in the Supreme Court, saying it even violates the principles of equality and secularism enshrined in the Indian constitution itself.

SS