India has announced rules that would allow it to implement a controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs announced the rules Monday, ahead of India’s general election in the spring, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a rare third term in power. The Citizenship Act provides a fast-track to citizenship for immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan – provided they are not Muslim. The controversial law would apply to religious minorities persecuted on religious grounds, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.
Critics of the bill say it is another example of how Modi and Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have pushed an agenda of Hindu nationalism onto secular India, a country of 1.3 billion people, at the expense of the Muslim population. The BJP has its roots in India’s Hindu right-wing movement, many followers of which see India as a Hindu nation.