Article

2019-01-09 India-Pakistan

India's lower house passes citizenship bill that excludes Muslims

[Al Jazeera] India's lower house of parliament has approved a bill that would grant residency and citizenship rights to non-Moslem im~~migrants~~ colonists, sparking protests that brought the country's populous northeast to a near standstill.

The legislation, which still needs the approval of the upper house, seeks to grant rights to Hindus, Jains, Parsis and several other non-Moslem religious groups who migrated illegally from Bangladesh, Pakistain and Afghanistan.

"They have no place to go except India," Home Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on Tuesday. "The beneficiaries of the bill can reside in any state of the country."

Critics have called the proposal, contained in the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, blatantly anti-Moslem and an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to boost its Hindu voter base ahead of a general election due by May.

The bill sparked a second day of protests in the northeastern state of Assam, where nearly 4 million people, accused of being foreigners, were effectively stripped of their citizenship last year.

Posted by Fred 2019-01-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [16 views ] Top

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