Narendra Modi contradicts Amit Shah over citizenship register as he tries to douse protests

Reuters visited an under-construction detention centre in India's northeast in September.

NEW DELHI (Reuters/Dunya News) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi contradicted his closest lieutenant over plans for a nationwide register as he tried to defuse protests against a citizenship law in which at least 25 people have been killed so far.

Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government says the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which became law on Dec. 11, is needed to give persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who fled to India before 2015 a pathway to citizenship.

But many Indians feel the law discriminates against Muslims and violates India’s secular constitution by making religion a test for citizenship. They say the law and a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) could be used to reduce Muslims to second-class citizens.

Modi also said that there had been no discussion on creating the nationwide register of citizens - directly contradicting key ally Home (Interior) Minister Amit Shah.

But speaking in parliament last month, Shah told lawmakers unequivocally that the government would introduce a nationwide register.

In April, he laid out the chronology for the process, telling reporters: “First, there will be a Citizenship Amendment Bill ... after that, there will an NRC.”

In June, after Modi’s party was returned to power with a thumping majority, President Ram Nath Kovind also told parliament that the register would be on the government’s agenda.

Shah was appointed president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shortly after Modi’s election win in 2014, a post he still holds. Modi named him to the powerful home ministry after he was re-elected this year.

“Just who are you calling a LIAR, PM?” wrote The Telegraph newspaper in a front page headline on Monday. Below, it highlighted comments by all three, asking: “Who’s saying the truth?”

The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to questions on the matter.

“HIGHLY UNLIKELY”

Neelanjan Sircar, a professor at Ashoka University near New Delhi, said the ruling party was likely trying to confuse the issue with the electorate to beat back growing opposition.

“Is it credible that Amit Shah and Narendra Modi are not on the same page on something this important, on something that has taken up the headlines and caused protests the way it has? It just seems highly unlikely,” Sircar said.

In July, the government informed parliament about guidelines for detention centres, including construction of basic amenities like electricity, drinking water, accommodation and toilets with running water.

Reuters visited an under-construction detention centre in India’s northeast in September.

So far, the citizens’ register has been restricted to the northeastern state of Assam, where it has been implemented under orders from the Supreme Court.

After officials vetted documents submitted by about 33 million people, 1.9 million people were excluded from the citizens’ list. Several hundred people unable to prove their citizenship are already in detention camps.

Many Indian Muslims see Assam as an example of what a nationwide exercise might mean for them, despite Modi’s insistence that there is no immediate plan for a nationwide register.

Mohammed Naeem, who joined a demonstration against the citizenship bill and the register in New Delhi hours after Modi’s speech on Sunday, said he was still fearful.

“The prime minister might say there is nothing to fear but do you see what is happening in Assam?” he said, walking amid protesters, joined by his wife and three young children.

“People are being forcefully evicted from their houses, detained.”

‘India appears to be divided into secular and Hindutwa philosophy under Modi regime’

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi about the passage of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whose is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the militaristic parent organisation of the BJP in India, said India appeared to be divided into secular and Hindutwa philosophy under the current Modi regime.

In his talk to the media in Multan on Sunday, the minister said all minorities and literate Hindus were protesting against Citizenship Amendment Act across the country.

He said there was a protest-like environment in the entire country as 25 people have been killed in the current tension so far.

He said the chief ministers of five states have refused to implement the controversial amendment act.

The foreign minister said international newspapers and magazines publishing articles which were critical of the Indian government for pursuing the Hindutwa agenda.

He said Indian government carried out communication blackout in the occupied Kashmir after imposing curfew for five months, but the entire India couldn’t be put under curfew, and the world saw the real face of India.

Mr Qureshi said India has been carrying out ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the fencing on the LoC has also been cut at five places.

He said he has sent his seventh letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) president, apprising him of situation on the ground.

He said UN Military Observers Group should brief the UN Security Council about the situation prevailing along the LoC.

He said Pakistan wanted an early meeting of the foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the human rights violations in occupied Kashmir to send across a message of the entire Ummah on the issue.