Opinion | Why India’s new citizenship law has sparked an outcry – even among those it sought to please

By excluding Muslims, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act infringes on articles of the Indian constitution which guarantee equality before the law and prohibit discrimination on religious grounds

The bill may have been rushed through to address Hindus rendered stateless by a register of citizens announced for the state of Assam, but has ended up angering people there

Reading Time:3 minutes

A woman holds up a placard during a protest against the Indian government’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in New Delhi on December 14. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:00am, 17 Dec 2019Updated: 6:00am, 17 Dec 2019

The passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 in both houses of the Indian parliament seeks to give Indian nationality to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution. The exclusion of Muslims from the bill has resulted in widespread protests in India and condemnation from other parts of the world.

The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, argues that Muslims were not included in the bill because they could not have faced religious persecution in those Muslim-majority countries and thus would have come to India of their own volition as economic migrants. This is specious logic as the bill does not cover around 60,000 Tamil Hindus, Christians and Muslims who fled Sri Lanka during the civil war. There has also been a large influx of Rohingya Muslims into India due to religious persecution by Buddhists in neighbouring Myanmar.

The bill is an infringement of the Indian constitution, which, under Article 14, guarantees not just “equality before the law” but also “equal protection of the laws” of the country. Further, Article 15 prohibits the state from discriminating against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

Opposition to the bill has been particularly loud in the multi-ethnic state of Assam, where anti-immigrant sentiment has been strong for more than half a century. The locals fear that illegal immigrants will become a burden not only on their resources and take way jobs but are also likely to pose a threat to the local culture, traditions and language.

In 1979, before a by-election for a parliamentary seat in Assam, observers noticed a massive increase in the number of voters, which student and political groups attributed to illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This sparked riots and protests, in which over 800 people died over six years, until the Indian government signed the “Assam Accord” in 1985. Under the accord, “foreigners” who entered and illegally remained in the country before March 25, 1971, the day before Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan, would be deported.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x