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Protests rage in northeast India over citizenship bill

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Guwahati: Protesters in northeast India set fire to tyres and cut down trees to block roads on Tuesday in a shutdown across the region hours after lawmakers approved the government’s new citizenship bill. The legislation, set to go before the upper house on Wednesday, will fast-track citizenship claims from refugees from three neighbouring countries — but not if they are Muslim. People in northeast India fear that large numbers of Hindu migrants from Bangladesh who they say are intruders will be given citizenship.


On Tuesday the region sandwiched between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar was crippled by a general strike called by dozens of organisations, with buses off the roads and most schools and shops shut. “The bandh (strike) have drawn a total response in the northeastern states,” said Samujjal Bhattacharyya from the powerful umbrella group the North East Students’ Organization. “We have made it clear ... that CAB (the Citizenship Amendment Bill) will not be accepted and we are going to intensify our agitation,” he said “Assam and northeastern states had already taken a huge burden of illegal foreigners,” he said.


India’s lower house passed the bill just after midnight following a fiery debate that saw one Muslim MP compare the government to the Nazis. Once law, it will make it much easier for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians fleeing Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to become Indians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government says Muslims are excluded because they do not face persecution in these three countries. Also excluded are other minorities fleeing other countries such as Tamils from Sri Lanka, Rohingya from Myanmar and Tibetans from China. “This bill is in line with India’s centuries old ethos of assimilation and belief in humanitarian values,” Modi tweeted. — AFP


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