GUWAHATI: Asecond day of protests yesterday tainted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visitto northeast India where proposals to change a nationality law have sparkedoutrage. Protesters waved black flags and burned effigies of the Hindunationalist prime minister while some students staged a nude protest outsidethe state government complex in the Assam capital of Guwahati. Media reportssaid the nude protesters were detained while Assam student groups said policebaton charged another group of activists.
Black flagprotests-considered a strong insult-greeted Modi when he arrived in Guwahati onFriday night to start the tour of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura as heprepares to call a national election. His nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has faced a severe backlash in the region over a proposed change to a1955 citizenship act which would give Indian nationality to Hindus and otherminorities who have fled the neighboring Muslim countries of Afghanistan,Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Assam, a state of33 million, has been plagued by decades of tensions between local tribal andindigenous groups and settlers from outside, including many Muslims and Hindusfrom nearby Bangladesh. Modi insisted that his government will ensure that theamended law does not harm Assam and neighboring states however. Addressing onepublic rally, he said the bill, which still needs approval from India's upperchamber, was a "national commitment" to the minorities.
"The passageof the bill will ensure that those people who... love India more than theirlives will be accommodated in India. It is a responsibility of India to acceptthose people," he said. Modi saidcitizenship will only be granted after thorough checks on each applicant. Whilegroups in Assam want to block all outsiders, human rights activists havecondemned the government law for not covering Muslims. They say it will be thefirst time religion has been a criteria for nationality in India, which isofficially secular.
Last year theAssam government released the first draft of a state citizens' register thatrejected four million mainly Muslim residents who were unable to prove theywere living in the state before 1971, when millions fled Bangladesh's war ofindependence. Modi said that his government was speeding up efforts to seal theIndia-Bangladesh border. An election is expected to be called for April-May andthe BJP's hopes in the northeastern states have been badly damaged by the new law,analysts said.
China protests
In anotherdevelopment, China yesterday protested the visit by Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, a contested regionlocated on the border between the two countries. "The Chinese governmenthas never recognized the so-called 'Arunachal Pradesh' and is firmly opposed tothe Indian leader's visit," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson HuaChunying said in a statement.
"China urgesthe Indian side to... refrain from any action that may lead to the escalationof disputes or complicate the boundary question," added Hua, some hoursafter Modi's visit to the contested area, during which he inaugurated buildingwork for two airports. Relations between New Delhi and Beijing have been markedby distrust since a brief but bloody 1962 border war, during which the twofought over Arunachal Pradesh, with Chinese troops temporarily capturing partof the Himalayan territory. The dispute remains unresolved, with Indiaconsidering Arunachal Pradesh one of its northeastern states while China claimsabout 90,000 square kilometers of the territory.
"Indianleaders visit Arunachal Pradesh from time to time, as they visit other parts ofIndia. This consistent position has been conveyed to the Chinese side onseveral occasions," India's foreign ministry said in a statementyesterday. In 2017, the two Asian giants were involved in a high-altitudestandoff in Bhutan's Doklam region after the Indian army sent troops to stopthe construction of a military road by China. After two tense months, thetroops from both countries withdrew and last April, Modi met with Xi Jinping inan effort to reset bilateral relations. - Agencies