INDIA BURNING. Violence Spreads in India as Hindu Rulers Pass Anti-Muslim Law
INDIA BURNING
Violence Spreads in India as Hindu Rulers Pass Anti-Muslim Law
As protests have been happening in India against the new anti-Muslim law, police – particularly in India’s capital New Delhi – have beaten the protesters mercilessly.
By Rakesh Raman
Government-backed forces have unleashed a terror on peaceful protesters in India, as people in all parts of the country have come on streets to protest against an anti-Muslim law that the Hindu rulers had dictated last week on December 11.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) 2019 has now become a law called Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which will decide the citizenship in India on the basis of people’s religion which excludes Muslims.
The Prime Minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi and his Home Minister Amit Shah – both of whom were accused in crimes including murders – are largely responsible for this new law which was made to pass in the Parliament.
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As protests have been happening in India against the new law, police – particularly in India’s capital New Delhi – have beaten the protesters mercilessly.
It is said that nearly 200 university students who were protesting on Sunday (December 15) in Delhi have been admitted to hospital with serious injuries including bullet wounds inflicted by Delhi Police which entered the university without permission to brutalize unarmed students. The incident is being compared to China’s brutality on students at Tiananmen Square.
The law is being challenged in the Supreme Court of India by a Muslim group, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which has said in its petition that the Citizenship Amendment Act violates Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution as it is based on a religious criteria excluding Muslims to grant citizenship to the people of different countries.
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As Modi and his Hindu political outfit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pledged to make India a Hindu Rashtra where Muslims and other minority communities will not have equal rights, they are imposing a number of anti-Muslim laws.
Earlier, in August, the Modi government had abrogated Article 370 which gave special privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Expecting backlash from the people of Kashmir (nearly 80% of them are Muslims), the government had imposed curfew in Kashmir where Muslims are still facing extreme human rights violations.
Also, the proposed introduction of National Register of Citizens (NRC) will give the government a right to identify and remove illegal immigrants. Although it was supposed to focus on Assam, the Modi government wants to extend it across the country. It will give another opportunity to Modi and Shah to detain and deport Muslims under the garb of NRC.
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Major opposition political parties led by Congress have protested strongly against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) as well as the NRC.
The Citizenship Amendment Act is an assault on our Constitution & the after affect of it is a country on fire. #BJPBurningBharat pic.twitter.com/n2UDg5pqtc
— Congress (@INCIndia) December 16, 2019
“The CAB and NRC are weapons of mass polarization unleashed by fascists (Modi and Shah) on India. The best defence against these dirty weapons is peaceful, non violent Satyagraha. I stand in solidarity with all those protesting peacefully against the CAB and NRC,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said today.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) says it is deeply troubled by the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), given the religion criterion in the bill. The United States government should consider sanctions against the Home Minister Amit Shah and other principal leadership, USCIRF said in its statement.
According to the statement, the CAB enshrines a pathway to citizenship for immigrants that specifically excludes Muslims, setting a legal criterion for citizenship based on religion.
The CAB is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction; it runs counter to India’s rich history of secular pluralism and the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law regardless of faith, the USCIRF statement said.
This report will also be published in the January 2020 issue of “Real Voter” magazine that covers issues related to politics and governance in India.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
