'Anti-Muslim' law challenged in India court
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A bill that grants Indian citizenship to
non-Muslim illegal immigrants has been challenged in the Supreme Court.
The Indian Union Muslim League, a political
party, has petitioned the court to declare the bill illegal.
The parliament on Wednesday passed the bill
which applies to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Critics
say the bill is against Muslims, but the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) has defended it.
The BJP says the Citizenship Amendment Bill
(CAB) will give sanctuary to people fleeing religious persecution. In their
petition to the Supreme Court, the Indian Union Muslim League argued that the
bill violated articles of equality, fundamental rights and the right to life.
It was passed in the upper house of parliament
by 125 votes to 105 on Wednesday. It had already cleared the lower house. It
will become a law once the president signs it, which is a formality at this
stage.
The CAB has also triggered huge protests in
the north-eastern state of Assam, forcing authorities to declare a curfew and
shut down internet services. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to reassure
people in Assam, telling them they had "nothing to worry" about.
"The Central Government and I are totally
committed to constitutionally safeguard the political, linguistic, cultural
and land rights of the Assamese people," he tweeted.
However, with internet and mobile services
still shut down, correspondents say it is unlikely residents would have been
able to read his tweets.
The situation in Assam remains tense, as
people defied curfew to protest in the state capital, Guwahati, on Thursday
morning. Train services are suspended and some airlines have started offering
rescheduling or cancellation fee waivers.
Protests have also taken place in the
north-eastern state of Tripura which borders Bangladesh. People in Assam and
Tripura fear that they will be "overrun" by illegal non-Muslim
migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
The army has been sent into the state of
Tripura and thousands of troops have been deployed to Assam. The chief
minister of Assam was stranded at the airport for several hours on Wednesday
because roads were blocked by protests.
A curfew was declared in the state capital and
internet and mobile services were blocked in a number of districts to try to
prevent further violence. Violent anti-migrant protests in the same region
meant that the bill could not be passed in the upper house when it was tabled
ahead of general elections earlier this year.
The protesters are particularly vocal in
Assam, which in August saw two million residents left off a citizens'
register. Illegal migration from Bangladesh has long been a concern in the
state.
The CAB is seen as being linked to the
register, although it is not the same thing.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a
list of people who can prove they came to the state by 24 March 1971, a day
before neighbouring Bangladesh became an independent country.
In the run-up to its publication, the BJP had
supported the NRC, but changed tack days before the final list was published,
saying it was error-ridden.
The reason for that was a lot of Bengali
Hindus - a strong voter base for the BJP - were also left out of the list,
and would possibly become illegal immigrants.
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