Indian Parliament clears anti-Muslim bill

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NEW DELHI: India's Parliament Wednesday approved a controversial citizenship bill that grants citizenship to minorities facing persecution from three neighbouring countries - but excludes Muslims.A day after clearing the lower house, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was passed on Wednesday by the upper house (Rajya Sabha), with 125 members voting in its favour and 105 against it.The bill brings sweeping changes to India's 64-year-old citizenship law by giving citizenship to "persecuted" minorities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians - from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.But critics say the legislation put forward by the Hindu nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) undermines the country's secular constitution, with opposition parties, minority groups, academics and a US federal panel calling it discriminatory against Muslims."Muslim citizens of this country have no reason to worry," Amit Shah, the federal home minister, said in Parliament. "This bill is intended to give citizenship, not take away citizenship."Several opposition parliamentarians said the bill would be challenged in court."The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill marks the victory of narrow-minded and bigoted forces over India's pluralism," said Sonia Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a "landmark day for India" and the passage of the bill will "alleviate the suffering of many who faced persecution for years".Hundreds of troops were deployed in northeast India as demonstrators went on the rampage in protest against the new legislation.Besides stoking concern among Muslims, the proposed changes have also led to demonstrations in the northeastern states where residents are unhappy about an influx of Hindus from neighbouring Bangladesh who stand to gain citizenship under the CAB.In a third day of protests in the far-flung region, several hundred troops were deployed in Tripura state and others were on standby in Assam, international media reported.Police fired teargas in different parts of Guwahati, Assam´s biggest city, as several thousand demonstrators attempted to barge past security barriers to converge on the adjoining state capital Dispur.Tripura and parts of Assam suspended mobile internet services, with Assam wanting to avoid social media posts that could "inflame passions". Gatherings of more than four people were banned for 24 hours.Derek O´Brien, an opposition lawmaker in the upper house, said the legislation bore an "eerie similarity" to Nazi laws in 1930s Germany."In 1935 there were citizenship laws to protect people with German blood ... today we have a faulty bill that wants to define who true Indian citizens are," he said.P Chidambaram from the opposition Congress party said the government was "wrecking and demolishing" India´s secular constitution to advance Modi´s "Hindutva agenda".Modi´s government -- re-elected in May and under pressure over a slowing economy -- says Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan are excluded from the legislation because they do not face discrimination in those countries.Also left out are other minorities fleeing political or religious persecution elsewhere in the region such as Tamils from Sri Lanka, Rohingya from Myanmar and Tibetans from China.Many Muslims in India say they have been made to feel like second-class citizens since Modi stormed to power in 2014. Several cities perceived to have Islamic-sounding names have been renamed, while some school textbooks have been altered to downplay Muslims´ contributions to India.Amit Shah, Modi´s right-hand-man and home minister, has likened illegal immigrants to "termites"."The Indian government is creating legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.The US Commission on International Religious Freedom on Monday termed the bill as a "dangerous turn in the wrong direction".Meanwhile, a judge-led commission report Wednesday said Narendra Modi was not complicit in deadly religious riots that broke out in 2002 in one of the bloodiest episodes in independent India.Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when nearly 1,000 people -- the majority of them Muslims -- were killed in riots triggered by a fire on a train which killed 59 Hindu activists. The riots have long dogged Modi, who was accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to the violence.The Nanavati Commission found that the riots were spontaneous, sparked by the train burning deaths, rather than pre-planned attacks. "There is no evidence to show that these attacks were either inspired or instigated or abated by any minister of the state," the Nanavati Commission said in its nine-volume report of more than 2,500 pages.The report -- which included 44,445 affidavits from witnesses and 488 government officials -- was tabled in the Gujarat state assembly on Wednesday, five years after it was submitted to the government following a 12-year probe.While the commission´s terms of reference did not require the government to make the findings public, it said in September the report would be released after a petition for its publication was filed in the high court. The commission also cleared the police force of negligence, finding that police were unable to control mobs as they had inadequate numbers or were not properly armed.In 2008, it had concluded that the train incident was a pre-planned conspiracy, with 31 people later convicted of criminal conspiracy and murder by a special court. More than 100 people have already been convicted over the riots.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/vPIGdzPVql8

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