CITIZENSHIP LAW: Hundreds detained in India for defying protest ban

Security operatives in India have detained hundreds of demonstrators for defying a ban on protests imposed in parts of the capital Delhi, and throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, against a controversial new citizenship law.

Reports say a prominent historian and outspoken critic of government, Ramachandra Guha was among those detained in the southern city of Bangalore alongside an unnamed political activist in the Yogendra Yadav area of Delhi.

The police chief of Uttar Pradesh, OP Singh, has asked people to stay away from protests. The police order, based on a severely restrictive law, prohibits more than four people from gathering in a place.

The new law known as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which offers citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan has sharply divided opinions in India.

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Critics of the new law say it is part of a “Hindu nationalist” agenda to marginalise India’s more than 200 million Muslims.

The development comes a day after India’s Supreme Court refused to stall the implementation of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which has triggered massive protests across the country.

The court sent a notice to the federal government asking it to respond to nearly 60 petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the law.

The next hearing will be held on January 22.

The petitioners argue that religion cannot be the basis of granting citizenship to undocumented migrants. The new law, they say, is against the secular principles of India’s constitution.

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