US expresses concern over religious freedom in India, cites citizenship law

The remarks came in the wake of widespread protests held across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The US has expressed concern over the current situation of religious freedom in India and raised the issue with Indian officials, a senior State Department official has said.

The remarks came in the wake of widespread protests held across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The senior State Department official, on condition of anonymity, said that he has met with officials in India about what is taking place in the nation and expressed concern.

"We are concerned about what's taking place in India. I have met with the Indian foreign minister. I've met with the Indian ambassador (to express my concern)," the official, who was recently in India, told reporters on Wednesday.

The US has also "expressed desire first to try to help and work through some of these issues", the official said as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched a 27-nation International Religious Freedom Alliance.

"To me, the initial step we try to do in most places is say what can we do to be of help you work through an issue to where there's not religious persecution. That's the first step, is just saying can we work with you on this," the official said.

India maintains that the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities.

It is widely acknowledged that India is a vibrant democracy where the Constitution provides protection of religious freedom, and where democratic governance and rule of law further promote and protect fundamental rights, a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.

Maharashtra bandh' over CAA, NRC: Security tightened; transport unaffected

Barring stray incidents of stone-pelting and attempt to disrupt road traffic in Mumbai, there was not much impact of the bandh in the metropolis.

The 'Maharashtra bandh' called by Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar's party on Friday to oppose the new citizenship law saw heavy police deployment across the state with public transport and normal life remaining largely unaffected.

The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has called for the statewide shutdown to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Barring stray incidents of stone-pelting and attempt to disrupt road traffic in Mumbai, there was not much impact of the bandh in the metropolis.

While a BEST (BMC's transport body) bus was stoned by unidentified persons near Swastik Park in suburban Chembur, VBA supporters gathered in large numbers at Teen Haath Naka in Thane to protest against the CAA, an official said.

Several VBA activists were detained by the police, when they tried to stop vehicles on Eastern Express Highway at Ghatkopar, he said.

Partial impact of the bandh was seen in pockets like Kurla, Sion-Trombay Road, Byculla, Dadar, Wadala and Andheri, the official added.

The Prakash Ambedkar-led party has claimed the support of over 50 political and social organisations apart from labour unions for the 'bandh'.

Ambedkar noted that several NGOs and citizen groups had demonstrated against the CAA and the NRC, but no political party had done so till now.

"That's why we are staging protest over the CAA and the NRC. In addition to this, the economy is in a bad shape and people's attention is being diverted. We will flag these issues," Ambedkar said.

In view of the 'bandh', the police tightened securityacross the state to maintain law and order, the official said.

CAA, Article 370 factors behind India's slide democracy index: Shiv Sena

Sena said a slowdown in economy gives rise to unrest and instability, and this was getting reflected in the prevailing situation in the country.

Politics News : The Shiv Sena on Friday said there have been attempts to muzzle dissenting voices and this is one of the reasons for India slipping in the 2019 Democracy Index's global ranking.

An editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece "Saamana" said a slowdown in economy gives rise to unrest and instability, and this was getting reflected in the prevailing situation in the country.

"Now (after an economic slowdown) there is a slide in (India's) global democracy index ranking," the Marathi daily said.

India slipped 10 places to 51st position in the 2019 Democracy Index's global ranking, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which cited "erosion of civil liberties" in the country as the primary cause for the downtrend. The EIU report was released earlier this week.

Citing issues like scrapping of Article 370, that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, new citizenship law CAA and the proposed NRC, measures which have witnessed protests, the paper said the country had witnessed a churning in the last one year.

"There have been protests and attempts to muzzle dissenting voices. Those who showed sympathy with JNU students (attacked by goons) were put in the dock and were made to look like an accused.

"This is the reason India slipped to 51st position in the Democracy Index, the editorial said and wondered if the ruling party at the Centre and its supporters accept the current situation.

"Even if the government rejects the (EIU) report, does the ruling party have an answer as to why the country was witnessing a slide, from economic field to democracy (ranking)?" the Sena, a former ally of the BJP, asked.

The Sena publication said if the government thinks the country was doing well (on economic front), "why is it asking the RBI for money"? apparently referring to the Centre's decision last year to seek Rs 1.76 lakh crore from reserves of the apex bank.

It is good to have a goal of making India a five trillion dollar economy (by 2024), but the GDP is not likely to grow by even 5 per cent in the current fiscal year, the party said.

Hundreds march from Jamia to Shaheen Bagh as anti-CAA protest continues

Many of them held candles and others marched holding placards that said, 'We reject CAA, NRC and NPR', 'Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, Aapas Meyn Bhai Bhai'.

Business Standard : Hundreds of people, including women and children, on Sunday evening took out a massive anti-CAA march from Jamia university gate to Shaheen Bagh as the chorus to demand repealing of the amended Citizenship Act grew louder in Delhi.

The march was high on symbolism as some locals dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar, while three men assumed the identity of martyred revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, one of them in prison clothes and tied in chains.

The protesters, chanting 'Azadi' and 'CAA-NCR Par Halla Bol', and other slogans also paraded a mock 'detention camp' portrayed with a cell on wheels inside of which sat little children of multiple faiths and changed slogans.

People have been protesting at Shaheen Bagh, which has become an epicentre of the anti-CAA agitation in the national capital, for the last over 30 days.

Many of them held candles and others marched holding placards that said, 'We reject CAA, NRC and NPR', 'Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, Aapas Meyn Bhai Bhai'.

After the march ended, protesters gathered from various parts of Delhi, raised slogans against the central government and demanded revocation of the CAA.

Mohammed Shah Rukh, a protester who came from Jaitpur, carrying the national flag spent his time trying to balance on the rail of the highway that runs through the area, while holding the tricolour in his hand in a "freedom fighter pose".

"I feel very overwhelmed by this movement, something we read in school textbooks about our freedom struggle, I feel we are fighting for that liberty again," he said.

Khan, a car mechanic, said some of his brothers also took part in the protest.

Several poets from various parts of the country also have gathered at Shaheen Bagh protest site, reciting patriotic poems, imbued with sarcasm towards the establishment.

Till late night, people had gathered in large numbers to listen to the poets, including women, who watched and chanted slogans way past midnight.

A group of four women, including two college girls, had come from Batla House to take part in the protest.

Kerala takes Citizenship Act to Supreme Court, first state to do so

In a suit filed in the apex court, the Kerala government has sought to declare that the CAA 2019 is violative of Article 14.

Kerala on Tuesday challenged the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Supreme Court, becoming the first state to do so as nationwide protest against the controversial law continue.

Kerala’s petition’s requests the court to declare CAA as illegal for violating of the Constitution’s Article 131, which empowers the Supreme Court to hear disputes between government of India and one or more states, Hindustan Times reported.

It says that the CAA violates right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India, right to life under Article 21 and freedom to practise religion under Article 25.

Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government has strongly opposed CAA, passing a resolution against it in the Assembly and criticizing the law in front-page advertisements of at least three national dailies.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, an ally of the BJP, has spoken against CAA, joining Madhya Pradesh’s Kamal Nath, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren in opposing the law.

CAA aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who arrived in India before Dec. 31, 2014, from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The passing of the bill on December 11 triggered widespread demonstrations in the Assam, as protesters feared it would convert thousands of illegal migrants from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh into legal residents.

Elsewhere in India, protesters say the citizenship law will be followed by the national register, which they fear is designed by the BJP-led government to expel Muslims who do not have sufficient citizenship documentation.

The government has refuted those allegations and vowed to protect all citizens equally.

German IIT-M student asked to leave India for taking part in CAA protest

The student, Jacob Lindenthal, had one semester to do on the campus before scheduled return in May 2020.

A German student at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras has said he was asked to leave India for protesting against the new citizenship law that has sparked unrest across the country.

“1933 to 1945; We Have Been There,” said a poster Jacob Lindenthal, carried when he joined other people in Chennai to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act last week. Lindenthal had a semester left of his post-graduation in Physics and he was scheduled to leave India in May 2020

Lindenthal told news organizations IIT-Madras and immigration officials asked him to leave Chennai on Monday. “There were apparently administration issues with my visa. After ruling these out, I was extensively questioned by the immigration officer about my political opinions. Then I was informed about the decision (asking him to leave),” he was quoted by News18.com as saying.

He added that he would consult his lawyer and decide the next course of action.

A students' body, ChintaBar, tweeted in solidarity with Lindenthal.

Citing sources, The Indian Express reported that an IIT official had sent a report about Lindenthal’s participation in the protests to “higher-ups.” When contacted by the newspaper, IIT officials said they were unaware of the “incident” involving Lindenthal.

Reports said a foreigner participating in a political activity or protest is a violation of visa norms.

Business Standard

As protests against citizenship tests swell, what Is Modi's endgame?

Protests in Indian cities against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens have attracted young people of all faiths and none.

Protests have broken out across India, a few of them violent, against a new law that fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from three majority-Muslim countries. In the northeastern state of Assam, where migration has long been a major political issue, four protesters were killed when security forces opened fire. In both the capital of Delhi and the town of Aligarh, local police stormed university campuses, beating up and arresting students. It is no coincidence that both the universities are historically Muslim.

In response, the government has arbitrarily turned off the internet across wide swathes of India and many states and cities have prohibited the gathering of four or more people—including in parts of Delhi, the software hub of Bengaluru, and the entire state of Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people. Hundreds have been arbitrarily detained, including some of India’s most prominent public intellectuals.

The widespread dissent has surprised nobody. The citizenship law is dangerous enough on its own terms: It imposes a religious test, which should in any case be anathema in a secular republic, and it deliberately excludes neighboring countries with persecuted Muslim minorities.

ALSO READ: 3 killed in police firing as protests against citizenship law sweep country

But it shouldn’t be seen in isolation. Officials have also promised a nationwide register that would require Indians to jump through hoops to prove their citizenship. Thus the two bills together are what have caused real concern: Very stringent requirements to verify citizenship can be imposed, and only Muslims will be required to fulfill them. The result is a sort of hideous hybrid of Trump’s “Muslim ban” and Britain’s “hostile environment.”

India is home to 200 million Muslims, the world’s second-largest national population. Like India’s other religious minorities, they’ve always been well integrated into the political system; for decades they were courted by politicians, and the law carved out special protections for them. In recent years, that has changed, especially after the election of Narendra Modi as prime minister in 2014. Right-wing ideologues declared gleefully that Modi’s party had “demolished the theory of a Muslim veto” on who ruled in India.

Business Standard

Citizenship Act to adversely impact Northeast people: Assamese group in US

The AANA also urged the prime minister to update the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) released on August 31, 2019.

CAB : The recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act will adversely impact people of Assam and the northeast, an association representing the Assamese community in North America said.

In a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Assam Association of North America urged that the Assam Accord of 1985 be implemented in its entirety, where it should prevail over the Act in case of any conflict.

"The recent passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, causes us concern that it will adversely impact the people of Assam and the northeast," said the association in its letter, dated December 14.

"We see this Act as a threat to the integrity and unabridged continuity of language, culture, demographics and economic wellbeing of the indigenous population of Assam and the northeast," the letter read.

To address the concerns, the AANA urged the prime minister to implement the 1985 Assam Accord in its entirety with the cut-off date of March 24, 1971 without further delay, and with an expedited date of completion.

"In case of any conflict between the CAA and the Assam Accord, the Assam Accord must prevail in order to ensure primacy in the public interest of the indigenous population of Assam," it said.

The AANA also urged the prime minister to update the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) released on August 31, 2019, with corrections necessary to enable full and complete implementation of the accord.

"While granting citizenship and settling refugees, take necessary steps to protect and preserve the cultural, social and linguistic identity of the indigenous people of Assam," the letter said.

India braces for more protests as anger grows against new citizenship law

Political leaders in Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal all said publicly they will not implement the law, setting up a potential conflict with the federal government in New Delhi.

BS : Tensions remain high across India Monday after five days of protests against a contentious new religion-based citizenship law turned violent in New Delhi, with police using tear gas to disperse crowds.

Anger against the law has fueled protests across the country, from Assam, about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 miles) to the east of Delhi, to demonstrations in Bengaluru and Mumbai. The agitation in Assam prompted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was scheduled to visit the state, the delay a three-day trip that was set to begin on Sunday.

The United Nations has described the law is “fundamentally discriminatory.”

Authorities shut down internet access in some districts in Assam -- which borders Bangladesh -- and in West Bengal as protesters defied police to take to the streets against the Citizenship Amendment Law. Passed Wednesday, it bars undocumented Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan from seeking citizenship but allows undocumented Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from these regions to do so.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who introduced the bill the parliament last week, called for calm on Sunday, saying cultures in northeastern states were not under threat.

ALSO READ: Citizenship law: Global criticism builds against Modi regime

Still, political leaders in Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal all said publicly they will not implement the law, setting up a potential conflict with the federal government in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has vowed to implement a citizenship drive nationwide to weed out undocumented migrants.

Assam was the first state to implement the register. The arduous process that ended in August 2019 has put about 1.9 million people at risk of becoming stateless. The new citizenship law has further raised concerns about the whittling away of values laid out in the secular constitution of the world’s second-most populous nation.

As protests raged in Delhi late on Sunday, student leaders and demonstrators were calling for police restraint and for the new law -- which they say goes against India’s secular constitution -- to be overturned.

50 students, detained during protests at Jamia, released: Delhi Police

Protesters torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with the police near Jamia Millia Islamia, during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act.

As many as 50 students, who were detained during protests at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi on Sunday, were released in the early hours of Monday, police said.

Of the 50 students, 35 were released from the Kalkaji police station and 15 from the New Friends Colony police station, a senior police officer said.

Earlier on Sunday night, the Delhi Minority Commission (DMC) issued a direction to the SHO of Kalkaji Police Station to release the "injured" Jamia students held there or take them for treatment at a reputed hospital without any delay.

The commission also directed the officer to file a compliance report by 3 pm on Monday.

In the order, DMC Chairman Zafarul Islam Khan said failure to implement it will attract appropriate action.

ALSO READ: Anti-CAA protests LIVE: 60 injured in Delhi, internet suspended in Bengal

Protesters torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with the police in New Friends Colony, near Jamia Millia Islamia, during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act on Sunday, leaving nearly 60 people including students, cops and fire fighters injured.

Police used batons and teargas shells to disperse the violent mob, but denied firing at them. However, videos of purported police firing, injured students in the university bathroom as well as footage of them bleeding emerged on the social media.

But Delhi Police refuted reports of any casualty during the clashes.

Following the arson on roads, police entered the Jamia university campus, where tension prevailed as several persons were detained for alleged involvement in the violence.

Business Standard

Citizenship Amendment Bill: A new lease of life for the two-nation theory

Introduction of a religious test for citizenship signals a u-turn from our Constitutional ideals and independence movement.

Business Standard : Abdus Salam was a brilliant Physicist, a rare prodigy who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in 1929 in Punjab in what was then undivided India. Salam can also be considered the father of Pakistan’s nuclear and space programs, which he anchored till he left the country, in protest. Salam was a devout Muslim of the Ahmadi sect. In 1974, the Bhutto government in Pakistan pushed through the Parliament a resolution that declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslim. He was never to return to Pakistan, his homeland. By every account, Salam was a patriot. He returned only after his death when he was buried next to his parents. The epitaph on his grave read, “the first Muslim Nobel laureate”. The epitaph was defaced and the word ‘Muslim’ scratched off. The Pakistani constitution bars Ahmadis from identifying as Muslims and denies other religious rights to the community.

Salam’s story is one of the less tragic ones from the Ahmadi community in Pakistan. Ahmadis have been lynched, their mosques bombed (they are also barred from calling them mosques) and massacres have taken place across Pakistan. The minuscule community (estimated to be less than 2 per cent of Pakistan’s population) fulfills every criteria to be recognised as a persecuted minority which is discriminated against by state sanction.

Last night the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill with 311 votes in favour and 80 against. This comes within a fortnight of Constitution Day which is celebrated every 26 November. The Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November, 1949 and came into effect on 26 January, 1950. The conception of India as a modern, secular, liberal republic was one of the greatest national experiments undertaken in history. It is an experiment that not only sought to break the shackles of colonial slavery but also sought to move on from a feudal past. It was the culmination of an enlightened independence movement led by giants who decided that it would be a constitutional republic that wouldn’t differentiate on the basis of faith. The Constitution doesn’t create a perfect republic by just existing, it doesn’t even ensure freedom from discrimination but it offers a protection and provides an ideal for us citizens to strive for. For the Republic of India, the Constitution is the lodestar.

On December 9, 2019, the Parliament took the first u-turn from this ideal. The Citizenship Amendment Bill has introduced a religious test for Indian citizenship. A religious test that screams that only Muslims aren’t welcome.

In an essay, Secular Common Sense, Mukul Kesavan quotes Isaiah Berlin who says that all thinkers are either hedgehogs or foxes. “The hedgehog had one big idea with which he ordered the world while the fox had a series of insights that explained it.”

At the stroke of midnight, Lok Sabha passes Citizenship Amendment Bill

The opposition says the Bill violates the Constitution.

The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) with 311 in favour and 80 against. The Bill is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

In his reply to over six-hour-long debate on the Bill, Union Home Minister Amit Shah insisted that the proposed law does not discriminate against Indian Muslims but aimed at protecting continued persecution of minorities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. He said the Bill was a result of the failure of the 1950 Nehru-Liaquat pact. The home minister said there is a distinction between illegal immigrants and refugees.

Members of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Left parties and others disputed this, terming it divisive and that it was a ‘trap’ and inextricably linked to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, which has ‘failed’ in Assam.

Shah said there was no linkage, and only those indulging in “vote bank politics” were thinking of it as a trap. He accused “some parties” of creating an “atmosphere of fear”. “We are very clear that we will carry out the NRC. This is not a ‘background’ for it, our manifesto is the background,” Shah said.

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said the Bill was a “conspiracy to make Muslims stateless”, and ripped a copy of the Bill to highlight his protest. Members from the treasury benches said Owaisi had insulted Parliament.

Opposition members said the Bill violated the Constitution, especially equality before law enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution. The Congress resolved to move the Supreme Court once Parliament passes the Bill. Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee said the West Bengal government would not allow NRC in the state.

Shah disagreed that it was uncosntitutional, pointing out that the Bill would grant citizenship to “persecuted minorities” in theocratic states of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

Business Standard