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 India’s New Discriminatory Citizenship Law
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India’s New Discriminatory Citizenship Law

by webadmin December 30, 2019 0 Comment

By Maya Garner

Protests have broken out across India over a controversial new citizenship law condemned by critics as discriminatory for  excluding Muslims. The Citizenship Amendment Act (C.A.A.) offers a “citizenship pathway” for religious minorities facing  “persecution or fear of persecution” in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and reduces  residence requirements for citizenship by naturalization from 11 to 5 years. The religious minorities cited include Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, from the three countries specified, but Muslims are omitted. Their exclusion has led to protests across the country.  Thousands of people have taken to the streets and 21 have died in  clashes with the police.  

Denying the accusations of religious bias, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave assurances at a counter-protest rally  by  his Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P.), that  the law “does not impact 1.3 billion Indians”, nor would it  “change anything” for India’s Muslim citizens.  , He accused the opposition of misconstruing the facts in order to spark the protests and politicize the issue. Modi’s B.J.P. party plans to hold some 200 more rallies.

Modi and the B.J.P. party came to power in 2014, since when his government has focused on  policies aimed to  centralize  government, shifting the power base  away from the autonomy of the Indian states.  In addition to limiting fiscal powers, the Modi administration has revoked  Article 370 f the  constitution, which gave autonomous powers to the Hindu-majority area of Jammu and the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, dissolving Jammu and Kashmir as a state.  Under Modi’s leadership, the government has  begun  construction of detention facilities designated for people who are  unable to prove their citizenship as required by  the new registry.

The UN Human Rights Office released a statement labelling India’s  Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 as “fundamentally discriminatory in nature.” The statement highlights  the Act’s specification  of religious minorities by name, which excludes any mention of  Muslims and minority sects. According to the UNOHCHR  this  was deemed to “undermine the commitment to equality before the law enshrined in India’s constitution and India’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to which Indian is a State party, which prohibit discrimination based on racial, ethnic or religious grounds.” The statement pointed out  that although India’s other naturalization laws remain unaffected on paper, the amendment would  be discriminatory  in practice.  UNOHCHR also drew  attention to India’s signing of the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration and its obligations toward a human-rights based approach to handling migration. Noting that  the Act is designed  to protect groups facing persecutions, the OHCHR called for “a robust national asylum system that is premised on the principle of equality and non-discrimination,” adding that it should make  “no distinction as to race, religion, national origin or other prohibited grounds.”

The anomaly in the new  Act  is its alleged need to distinguish between religious groups.  Rather than focusing on  the nature of the persecution suffered, the emphasis is on  the applicant’s religious affiliation —  a secondary detail that should have no relevance  for assessing an applicant  seeking  citizenship on grounds of  persecution. How can it be equitable and fair  to name only certain  religions yet specifically exclude  others? If India genuinely believes a Muslim is less likely to face religious persecution in the three countries mentioned, that  assumption in no way negates the needs of a persecuted individual to asylum and citizenship. The nature of the persecution is what determines an applicant’s  asylum and citizenship status.  Designating certain  religions by name while excluding others amounts to  an arbitrary distinction which  only serves to pave the way for discriminatory practices.

India’s  Supreme  Court has not halted implementation of the Act. T  The protests continue, with many deaths to date.  The citizenship status of many Muslims  is now subject to political cynicism and doubt.  The authorities continue to crackdown on the unrest,  shutting down internet and mobile messaging services in Delhi, closing  metro stations and refusing  permits for large demonstrations.

India should adhere to  its obligations both as a UN Member State and as a recent signatory of the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration. This flawed  law should be amended. Those responsible for it should  redraft and adopt inclusive language in which no religion is given precedence  over another and in which the rights of the  persecuted are maintained regardless of religious belief  or affiliation, paving the way for a more equitable society and legal system.

 

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