Protests in India against a new citizenship law claimed five lives on Friday as thousands of people defied bans on public gatherings and clashed with police even as authorities blocked the internet in several towns and detained hundreds of people.
The protests, now in their second week, have taken 13 lives as crowds have sometimes turned violent.
On Friday, police fired tear gas and used water cannon to control angry protesters in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and in the capital, New Delhi.
Five people were killed in violence that erupted in several towns of Uttar Pradesh where stone-pelting crowds clashed with police and set vehicles and a police post on fire. The state, with a large Muslim population, is a flashpoint for tensions between Muslims and Hindus.
Protesters pelt stones at police personnel during clashes over citizenship law in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, Dec. 20, 2019, in this still image taken from video.In New Delhi, thousands gathered after prayers on a narrow street outside the city’s main mosque, the Jama Masjid, chanting, “Remove Modi” and calling on the government to scrap the law as police and paramilitary stood by.
Some waved Indian flags and “Save the Constitution” banners, while others carried placards that read, “Not to be violent, not to be silent.”
The largely peaceful march, however, was disrupted in the evening when some protesters pelted stones and torched a vehicle outside a police station, prompting officers to spray the crowd with water cannon. Dozens were injured.
Outside Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, slogan-shouting students launched a signature campaign demanding that the law be scrapped.
Section 144
The protests that began on predominantly Muslim university campuses like Jamia Millia have widened as ordinary citizens and academics join with students. Bollywood stars were among those who raised their voices against the new law in Mumbai on Thursday at a huge rally in India’s financial capital.
Indians gather for a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act after Friday prayers outside Jama Masjid in New Delhi, India, Dec. 20, 2019.Critics call the new law unconstitutional because it does not include Muslims among six religious groups that stand to receive Indian nationality if they have faced persecution in three neighboring countries — Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
While the immediate spark for the public fury is the citizenship law, anger is also growing for what is being decried as an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to control dissent by preventing people from staging demonstrations.
Since the protests escalated, authorities have imposed a restrictive rule known as Section 144 in several parts of the country. It prohibits more than four people from gathering at one place, closed metro stations in the capital to prevent people from mobilizing, and shut down the internet and text messaging services in many places.
Blaming the government for coming down with a heavy hand on protesters, political analyst Neerja Chowdhury said, “You have 144 being imposed all over, you have the net shutdown, things that have been unprecedented. That is fueling the anger.”
Instead, she said, the government should have reached out to calm fears of “people who are unhappy, insecure, worried about the future and worried about where the country is headed.”
Government: ‘Lies and rumors’
Authorities defended the measures, saying they were necessary to control the volatile situation.
While critics see the new law as an attempt to turn India into a Hindu nation, the government has defended the controversial law as a humanitarian gesture meant for minority communities in neighboring Islamic countries. The prime minister has said that the law will not impact any Indian Muslim and blames opposition parties for sparking panic and spreading “lies and rumors” about it.
Besides the citizenship law, protesters are demanding that the government roll back plans for an identification plan that would involve all citizens producing records to show they or their ancestors lived in India. That would put Muslims at a disadvantage because they would risk losing their nationality if they cannot produce the records.
There was some relief for the northeastern state of Assam, which has also witnessed widespread protests against the law as data services, which had been switched off for almost two weeks, were restored following a high court order. The Assamese people oppose the law because they worry that it will pave the way for tens of thousands of migrants, who came from Bangladesh, to settle in their state, drowning their identity.
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