In India, students at forefront of fresh protests against ‘anti-Muslim’ citizenship law

Anger has been growing over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, which critics say is part of PM Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda

Former opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called the bill a weapon ‘of mass polarisation unleashed by fascists’, in reference to Modi’s BJP

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A man runs past a bus that was set on fire by demonstrators during a protest against the new citizenship law in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:44pm, 16 Dec 2019Updated: 10:05pm, 16 Dec 2019

Fresh protests over India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) erupted on Monday at university campuses across the country, leaving dozens of demonstrators and police officers injured.

The law, which was approved last week, fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from three neighbouring Muslim-majority countries if they are facing religious persecution.

But critics allege it is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalise the 200 million Indians who follow Islam.

In the country’s northeast, however, even allowing non-Muslims citizenship is opposed by many locals who fear their culture is threatened by an influx of Bengali-speaking Hindus.

Narendra Modi, India’s Hindu-nationalist prime minister, has defended the bill. Photo: DPA

Modi, who insists he is not anti-Muslim, said the citizenship law is “1,000 per cent correct” and that Muslims from the three countries are not covered because they have no need of India’s protection.

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