The Indian government enacts a hugely controversial citizenship law, which is discriminatory against Muslims, weeks before the country’s general elections as, what analysts call, a means of wooing Hindu nationalist voters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “government announces implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),” a government spokesman said on Monday.
The law allows Indian citizenship for non-Muslim refugees from three of India’s neighboring countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, who fled to Hindu-majority India before December 31, 2014.
Billed as “Islamophobic” by critics, the CAA was passed in 2019. Its implementation was, however, delayed after the outbreak of protests, during which more than a 100 people were reportedly killed, most of them Muslims.
The law’s implementation came as the country is expected to soon announce dates for the elections, which is likely to be held in April or May, with Modi widely favored to win a third term in office.
Also on Monday, the main opposition Congress party said the law’s implementation had been intentionally timed to come in the weeks that preceded the polls.
“After seeking nine extensions for the notification of the rules, the timing right before the elections is evidently designed to polarize the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam,” Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said on X. The eastern states are home to large Muslim populations.
The opposition Communist Party of India, which rules the southern state of Kerala, meanwhile, called for state-wide protests on Tuesday.
“This is to divide the people, incite communal sentiments, and undermine the fundamental principles of the Constitution,” Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement. “This move to stratify Indian citizens who have equal rights, must be opposed unitedly.”
Many among India’s 200-million-strong Muslims, who account for the world’s third-largest Muslim population, fear that the CAA’s implementation could serve as a precursor to enactment a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Upon potential enactment, the NRC is feared to remove the citizenship of Muslims without documents in some border states.
