A divisive citizenship bill has been signed into law in India, a move that comes amid widespread protests in the country’s northeast.
Two people were killed and 11 injured on Thursday when police opened fire on mobs in Assam State torching buildings and attacking railway stations.
Protesters have said that the law would convert thousands of illegal immigrants into legal residents.
Photo: Reuters
The new law lays out a path of Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups from the neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Indian President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday gave his assent to the bill, signing it into law, an official statement said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a meeting in Assam next week, as part of a campaign to move high-profile diplomatic events outside New Delhi to showcase India’s diversity.
A movement against immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh has raged in Assam for decades.
Protesters have said that granting Indian nationality to more people would further strain the resources of Assam and lead to the marginalization of indigenous communities.
Japan has stepped up infrastructure development work in Assam over the past few years, which the two sides are expected to highlight during the summit.
Abe plans to visit a memorial in the nearby state of Manipur, where Japanese soldiers were killed during World War II.
Critics of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government have said that the bigger problem with the new law is that it is the first time that India is using religion as a criterion for granting citizenship, and that it excludes Muslims from its scope.
The Indian Union Muslim League party has petitioned the Indian Supreme Court, saying that the law is in conflict with the secular principles of the Indian constitution, which guarantees equality to all, without any regard to religion. No date has been set for the hearings.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS