Backlash against Narendra Modi’s plan to extend citizenship to settlers who fled to India from neighbouring countries
- Change would give Indian nationality to Hindus and other minorities who have fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan
A second day of protests on Saturday tainted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to northeast India where proposals to change a nationality law have sparked outrage.
Protesters waved black flags and burned effigies of the Hindu nationalist prime minister while some students staged a nude protest outside the state government complex in the Assam capital of Guwahati.
Media reports said the nude protesters were detained while Assam student groups said police baton charged another group of activists.
Black flag protests – considered a strong insult – greeted Modi when he arrived in Guwahati on Friday night to start the tour of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura as he prepares to call a national election.
His nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has faced a severe backlash in the region over a proposed change to a 1955 citizenship act which would give Indian nationality to Hindus and other minorities who have fled the neighbouring Muslim countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Assam, a state of 33 million, has been plagued by decades of tensions between local tribal and indigenous groups and settlers from outside, including many Muslims and Hindus from nearby Bangladesh.
People who … love India more than their lives will be accommodated in India
Modi insisted that his government will ensure that the amended law does not harm Assam and neighbouring states however.