The citizenship amendment law that the BJP government has imposed on India's citizenship has not only created dissatisfaction with the declaration that it is unconstitutional within the country, but the UN is also strongly opposed.
"We are concerned that India's new citizenship law is fundamentally discriminatory," United Nations human rights spokesman Jeremy Lawrence said at a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday. We know that the legality of this law will be challenged by the Supreme Court of India and our hope is that the court will consider the citizenship law, considering the responsibility of India in international human rights law. ”
The proposal for amending the citizenship law of the year 1955 was passed on December 10 in the lower house of parliament of the Indian Parliament. Later it was passed in the upper house of the Rajya Sabha and on Thursday it was signed into law by the President.
The Act calls for giving Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsi people who have migrated to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Muslims are excluded from this law.
Violent protests have been taking place in different parts of India for the past two days in protest of the law. Two people were killed in police firing in Guwahati on Thursday. Conflict spread in Delhi on Friday.
Jeremy Lawrence said the law did not mention the same protection for Muslim refugees as people of six faiths. And the promise of ensuring equality for all in the Constitution has not been properly evaluated.
Experts say, this amendment was not necessary. Moreover, there is no proper explanation of religious persecution. In this context, the BJP has made politics by referring to religion, without breaking the constitution.
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