Divisive Citizenship Law: Anger simmers in parts of India
Protests against a divisive new citizenship law continued in West Bengal, Assam and Delhi yesterday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Congress and its allies of raising storm over the law.
A railway station in Malda was set on fire and angry protesters clashed with the police at several places in West Bengal, forcing suspension of internet services in five districts of the state.
Thousands of protesters squatted on rail tracks, blocked major roads and clashed with police at several places in Malda, Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts. The violent agitation spread to new places like Birbhum and Cooch Behar districts, police said.
In Delhi, violence broke out in Jamia Nagar locality yesterday evening when people and students of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university clashed with police over the law.
Police and protesters fought pitched battles in South Delhi as the police used tear gas and resorted to baton charges after protesters smashed cars and set at least three buses on fire. The skirmishes spilled over to nearby posh South Delhi locality New Friends Colony. Protesters also blocked tracts of the Delhi-Mathura road, which is opposite to the colony.
Delhi has been witnessing protests against the law for the last four days but violence was witnessed for the first time yesterday.
Our New Delhi correspondent adds: demonstrators gathered outside the old Delhi Police Headquarters in central Delhi to protest the force’s handling of the situation after an agitation against the new citizenship law near the university turned violent.
They torched several vehicles near the university and clashed with police. Later, police entered the university to control the situation and said they detained some of the people who were allegedly involved in violence.
The protesters raised anti-police slogans outside the headquarters in ITO area, after a call for it was given by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union.
Other students’ bodies endorsed the protest call.
The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) administration last night announced the closure of the institution till January 5 in the wake of clashes broke out between police and students protesting against the amended Citizenship Act near the campus gate.
“The university is closed from today [yesterday] till January 5. This is being done due to disturbances created by some anti-social elements for the last three days,” said AMU Registrar Abdul Hamid.
Another protester succumbed to his injuries yesterday taking the toll in Thursday’s violent street clashes in Guwahati, Assam, to four, media reports said.
While a youth, who received bullet wounds in Guwahati on December 12, succumbed yesterday, the driver of an oil tanker, who sustained burn injuries when his vehicle was set on fire in Sonitpur, died on Saturday.
Two persons were killed in police firing on violent mob in Guwahati on Thursday.
The mob was protesting the changed citizenship law that seeks to give Indian nationality to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Curfew was relaxed for several hours from 9:00am to 6:00pm in Guwahati and from 7:00am to 4:00pm in Dibrugarh west, Naharkatia, Tenughat and some other places in the district yesterday, officials said.
Some 5,000 people took part in a fresh demonstration in Guwahati yesterday, with hundreds of police watching as they sang, chanted and carried banners with the words “long live Assam”, reports AFP.
Activists of the Guwahati unit of Bharatiya Janata Party’s Assam ally the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) yesterday held demonstrations outside party headquarters in Ambari area of Guwahati demanding the resignation of three ministers, including party president Atul Bora.
AGP lawmakers in parliament had voted in favour of the contentious law. The party has now decided to approach the Supreme Court against the law.
All-Assam Students Union and Assam Jatiya Chhatra Parishad took out rallies across the state, seeking revocation of the amended law, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The street protests against the amended citizenship law will remain in firm focus when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeee leads a march in Kolkata today and the day after as part of her party Trinamool Congress’ agitation against the legislation.
The law seems to have brought traditional political rivals in Kerala -- ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-spearheaded United Democratic Front multi-party alliances —where the two sides are likely to hold a joint protest meeting in Thiruvananthapuram today.
The opposition attack on the amended citizenship law went up a few notches on Saturday when former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, addressing a rally in New Delhi, alleged that the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have set the entire north east region on fire and states like Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura were “burning.”
“He [Modi] has burnt all these places. He divides people and works towards weakening the country,” Rahul charged.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday accused the Congress and its allies of raising a storm over citizenship law and asserted that the opposition parties were behind the unrest and arson in parts of the country.
Home Minister Amit Shah assured that the concerns of Meghalaya regarding the citizenship law will be looked into, the state’s Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said yesterday. Meghalaya is one of the northeastern states which have been witnessing widespread protests over the law, reports NDTV.
Kerala and West Bengal are among the five states whose chief ministers Pinarayi Vijayan and Mamata Banerjee have already declared their state governments will not implement the amended citizenship law passed by parliament and assented to by President Ram Nath Kovind.
However, constitution experts unanimously hold that states have no option other than implementing a law passed by national parliament.
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