New Delhi Hit by Angry Protests against Modi’s Citizenship Law

By Staff, Agencies

Amid threats of a retaliatory crackdown, protesters have taken to the streets of India's capital New Delhi and other cities throughout the country to rally against the adoption of controversial amendments to the law on citizenship, which expressly fails to include Muslims in an amnesty directed towards immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The ongoing nationwide protests in India are a result of parliament passing last week's bill, which allowed citizenship for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis facing persecution in neighboring Muslim majority countries.

Muslims were excluded from the right to citizenship under the bill, with the exception seen as a fresh discriminatory attempt to sideline the nearly 200-million-strong Muslim community.

On Wednesday, the Indian Supreme Court refused to suspend the implementation of the citizenship law as amended, despite the ongoing unrest in the country.