LettersIndian citizenship law: don’t mix religion and politics, fix the economy

I refer to the chilling coverage of the violent protests in India against a new citizenship law. The ostensible purpose of the Citizenship Amendment Act is to protect non-Muslims arriving from neighbouring Islamic countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. India is a secular country, though about 85 per cent of the population is Hindu, the largest Hindu population in the world. So, perhaps the Hindu-nationalist government of Narendra Modi feels a moral responsibility to accommodate those of the faith facing persecution in any country.

There has been opposition to the new law on the grounds that it bars Muslim migrants from seeking citizenship. But the counter-argument is that, if India offers citizenship to Muslims from avowedly Islamic countries, their governments could object. They would claim that India is encouraging an exodus from their territories.

However, the real reason spurring the current agitation is the concern that the Muslim community in the country is being marginalised. About 2 million people have been omitted from the National Register of Citizens in Assam state, following a US$225 million, five-year exercise.

Apparently they did not have documents to prove that they were Indian citizens, or how long they had lived in the country. Under the new law – which makes religion a citizenship criterion for the first time under India’s secular constitution – the Hindus and those of other minority faiths left out of the list may now be able to stay on, but not the Muslims.