India’s new citizenship law outrages Muslims
Dec 12th 2019NEW DELHIWHEN AMIT SHAH, India’s home minister, proposed his bill in parliament on December 9th, he framed it as an act of mercy. Henceforth, he promised, people who have fled persecution in neighbouring countries and taken refuge in India would be granted quicker access to citizenship. His Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would right the historic wrong of India’s Partition in 1947, when—as he disingenuously put it—the rival Congress party had agreed to split the country along religious lines.The bill passed handily in the Lok Sabha or lower house of parliament, where Mr Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds absolute sway. But India did not greet his tweaks to citizenship rules with joy. In the northeastern states of Assam and Tripura, violent protests prompted curfews, suspension of internet and train services and deployment of army units. Hundreds of prominent intellectuals signed an angry petition, while in parliament’s upper house speaker after speaker rose to lambast the bill, calling it an attack on India’s constitution, or on its national soul, that would make the country like Nazi Germany or, worse, Pakistan. When the bill did pass into law on December 11th, it was by only a 21-vote majority in the 245-seat house.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address