'Anti-Muslim' Citizenship Amendment Act draws massive protests across India

Protests in Assam against CAA

The controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has drawn massive protests across India which has been implemented ahead of Lok Sabha polls. 

The decision was announced by the Union Home Ministry on Monday evening just weeks before national election where the ruling BJP government seeks to secure power for third term.

The implementation of the law is leading unrest across India. Protests have already started in Northeast India including Assam and also in New Delhi, the capital city of India.

In Assam at night, leaders and workers of various organizations protested by burning copies of the law. Opposition parties in the state have called a strike in the state on Tuesday (12 March). Large-scale protests are also expected in West Bengal in the same day. 

Protests erupted on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in New Delhi on Monday evening hours after the government notified the rules of the Act (CAA). 

A group of students led by the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) raised slogans against the Modi government and the Delhi Police.

The Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) also opposed the implementation of the law. 

The BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed the Act in December 2019. From very the beginning, there has been strong opposition to this law from various quarters of the society. 

There was a huge protests across India when the law was passed. There was a prolonged protests and blockade in New Delhi which took a form of riots. Hundreds of people, most of them are Muslims, lost their lives in the protest-violence.

According to this act, the Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsi religious minorities who migrated to India before 2014 due to communal torture and persecution from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be given citizenship under this act.

Opponents alleged that the Act was against the Constitution of India. Because this law discriminates among citizens on religious grounds. 

On the other hand, BJP's statement, this law will not take away the citizenship of anyone. Those who immigrated to this country due to religious discrimination will be granted citizenship.

Copies of CAA were burned at night

Amid the protests, CAA copies have been burnt in different parts of Assam on Monday night. People from various tribal communities came together and started burning copies of the Act in Guwahati, the state capital. In this situation, extreme alert has been issued across the state.

The protests in Assam were initially led by the All Assam Students Union (ASU), an organization that has led the anti-foreign intrusion movement for over five decades.

Asu chief advisor Samujjbal Bhattacharya told local media, "We cannot accept the amended Citizenship Act in any way. The BJP government today gave the biggest shock to the people of Assam. As a result, our ethnic identity and culture came under pressure."

Even after the law was passed in 2019, various political parties and people of Assam took to the streets to oppose it. All opposition parties once again have called for a strike in Assam on Tuesday.

Congress, one of the main opposition parties in Assam, has also protested the central government's decision. 

Leader of the Congress in the Assembly, Debbrata Saikia, said that the CAA cannot be accepted under any circumstances. Because, this law has completely pushed the 'Assam Accord' of 1985 in the opposite direction. 

The Assam Accord states that those who came before 24 March 1971 are recognized Indian citizens. Those who came after that date are not. 

On the other hand, the CAA says that those who arrived before December 31, 2014, are recognized citizens. In other words, the CAA has extended the deadline for recognized citizenship by another 43 years. This is the objection of the people of Northeast India, He added. 

People from the mainly tribal communities in northeast India, including Assam, say that if the CAA is implemented, non-tribals who have been living in Uttar Pradesh for 43 years will be able to buy land in tribal areas and settle permanently. 

They are mainly Hindu Bengalis. In this, a part of the tribals will lose their possession on the land. However, the Act places restrictions on the sale and purchase of land in tribal areas. But various organizations of North East India feel that it is not enough.

Among other opposition parties in Assam, one of the most prominent leaders, Akhil Gogoi, has called for peaceful participation in the protests. Assam National Assembly President Luringjyoti Gogoi termed Monday as a 'black day'.

Assam Chief Minister BJP leader Himanta Vishwasharma also fears that the law and order situation in the state will deteriorate with the implementation of the law, it became clear last Sunday. 

On that day, he told reporters that the political parties who oppose the amended Citizenship Act (CAA) and announced a strike as a protest, will apply to the Election Commission to cancel their political symbols.

Source: agencies and local media

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