Random protests have arisen in India against a citizenship law that has been accused of discriminating against Muslims, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government adopted the legislation only days before a general election.
Protests erupted in the eastern state of Assam and the southern state of Tamil Nadu late Monday evening after the implementation was announced, police said Tuesday. There were no complaints of damage or conflicts with security personnel.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government issued rules on Monday to execute the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), making it easier for non-Muslim refugees from three Muslim-majority South Asian countries to get Indian citizenship.
The law’s introduction in 2019 sparked significant demonstrations and sectarian violence, with hundreds killed, forcing the government to postpone its implementation.
On Monday, demonstrators marched by candlelight through Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, shouting anti-law slogans.
On Monday night, demonstrators in Assam burned copies of the bill and screamed slogans, prompting local opposition parties to declare a state-wide strike for Tuesday.
Many Assamese are opposed to the CAA because they feel it will boost migration from adjacent Muslim Bangladesh, a long-standing source of conflict in the state.
Authorities in New Delhi, the national capital where the protests were held in 2019, were on high alert for any potential violence, barring illegal gatherings and enhancing police presence in critical places.
Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who came to India due to religious persecution in adjacent countries before December 31, 2014, are granted Indian nationality under the CAA.
Rights campaigners and Muslim groups argue that the law, paired with a proposed national register of citizens, has the potential to discriminate against India’s 200 million Muslims, the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
The administration denies being anti-Muslim and claims the measure is necessary to assist minorities facing persecution in Muslim-majority countries.
It claims that the law is intended to grant citizenship rather than take it away and that the protests are politically driven and the result of widespread misconceptions.
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