Regional party quits India's ruling coalition over citizenship bill

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Thousands demonstrated in northeastern India on Monday against a proposal to grant citizenship to religious minorities in the region. A regional party quit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling coalition in protest even as critics attacked the bill as prejudiced and a sop to Hindus before this year's general elections.

Protesters burned copies of the legislation in angry marches across India's northeastern state of Assam, where millions have settled in recent decades after fleeing neighboring Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The Assam-based Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the controversial bill. The legislation would grant citizenship to select groups - including Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, but not Muslims - who have moved from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and lived in India for at least six years.

The proposal has been hotly contested in Assam, a hilly state that has witnessed violence between settlers and indigenous groups, who say they have lost land and jobs to the newcomers.

"This is just the first phase of our agitation," said Palash Changmai, the secretary-general of a student organization that participated in a march. "Today, we burned copies of the bill and hoisted black flags in different towns and sub-divisions of Assam as a mark of protest."

The legislation could be tabled in parliament as early as Tuesday, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

"The home minister clearly told us they will try to get this bill passed tomorrow, so there's no question us staying with the BJP anymore," AGP president Atul Bora told reporters in New Delhi.

Protests have erupted in recent months and on Monday in Assam, where a movement against illegal immigrants, of all religions, from Bangladesh, has simmered for decades, with some residents blaming them for eating into their resources and job opportunities.

It is estimated that millions of Bengali-speaking people in Assam trace their roots to Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The fiery opposition to the new proposal reflects the complex nature of religious and ethnic identity in a state already embroiled in a separate citizenship controversy.

A new registry of citizens compiled in Assam this year forced the state's 33 million people to submit documents proving they were there before 1971 when millions fled Bangladesh's independence war.

In July, a draft registry left four million people off the list effectively rendering them stateless, drawing concern from human rights experts at the United Nations and rights groups.

An electoral ploy?

Activists hold placards as they take part in a protest rally against Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 in Guwahati, Assam, India, January 7, 2019. /VCG Photo

But the new proposal, which would grant Hindus another path to citizenship in Assam, has been criticized for being prejudicial and comes as Modi, a Hindu nationalist, seeks re-election in national polls expected within months, as some analysts have claimed.

Critics say the bill, which offers preferential treatment to certain groups seeking citizenship, is a transparent pitch to voters.

The BJP says it is in favor of "constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards" to the ethnic Assamese, but also wants to give citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh as the growth in the Hindu population of Assam had been overtaken by that of Muslims.

"We're trying to save Assam from Jinnah," BJP leader and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, referring to Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was instrumental in carving Muslim-dominated Pakistan out of India after winning independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

The BJP has the numbers in the Assam assembly to stay in power in the state despite the AGP pullout, but the regional party could help galvanize anger amongst many ethnic Assamese opposed to giving citizenship to migrants who came to India after 1971.

That could hurt the BJP's goal of sharply increasing its parliamentary seats from the northeast region of the country in the national election.

AGP is the fourth ally to quit the ruling NDA in the past year, for a variety of reasons. At least two of the parties that have left the BJP fold have already largely agreed to ally with the main opposition Congress, which hopes to take on Modi as a united front and says the citizenship should not discriminate against Muslims.

(Cover: Activists shout slogans during a rally in protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 in Guwahati, Assam, India, January 7, 2019. /VCG Photo)

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters