New Indian legislation purports to help those fleeing persecution abroad \u2013 but deepens communal divides at home<\/p>\n
Thousands nationwide have protested against India\u2019s new citizenship law in recent days, facing a brutal police response<\/a>. This is arguably the biggest display of opposition<\/a> to Narendra Modi since he took power six years ago, and for good reason. Demonstrators have been urged into action not by the sense of a new direction being established, but of the confirmation of the country\u2019s alarming trajectory. The legislation is the proof that Mr Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist project is not a containable anomaly, but an enterprise that threatens the nation\u2019s very foundations of pluralism and secularism. Fear overshadows the hopes of that seven-decade endeavour.<\/p>\n The prime minister has piously tweeted: \u201cThis is the time to maintain peace, unity and brotherhood.\u201d Superficially this is, as the BJP government claims, a law that expands rather than removes rights. It creates a fast-track path to citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsees and Christians arriving from Muslim-majority states, who would otherwise spend years labelled as illegal immigrants. But no one considering either its text or context could seriously regard this as a measure of inclusion. It is inherently one of exclusion, which discriminates against Muslims fleeing persecution, and signals that Muslim citizens are not \u201ctruly\u201d Indian. It undermines constitutional protections which apply to foreigners as well as citizens in India.<\/p>\n