Protestors slam new Indian bill as anti-Muslim

A group of protesters who call themselves “South Africans against Apartheid India” gathered outside the gates of the Consulate General of India’s offices in Parktown yesterday to deliver a memorandum to voice their rejection of a newly passed controversial bill in India which offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants.

The passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) sparked a backlash from protesters including students who believe that the new laws were anti-Muslim and could potentially leave many Muslim citizens stateless if they did not have the necessary documents to prove that their ancestors lived in India.

“These measures are a desecration of justice, a mockery of International Human Rights Law and a violation of the Indian Constitution and its secular values,” reads the memorandum. It also states that Muslims and marginalised groups were at risk of becoming stateless and stripped of their human rights and human dignity which could potentially lead to being sent to detention camps.

According to international media reports more than 20 people have died in clashes sparked by the bill and several thousand people have also been detained. Raees Noorbhai, who is an activist and a Wits University student, said the police brutality against protesters in India was similar to what happened in South Africa during apartheid and, therefore, they could not sit around and watch while the same injustice was being carried out against innocent people in India.

“As South Africans, our history bears witness to apartheid and the injustices of categorisation and subjugation. It also bears witness to the role of international solidarity in fighting racism, dismantling apartheid and resisting injustice. We see the similarities between our history and what is unfolding now in India.”

Noorbhai said they organised the protest to show solidarity with students and protesters, both on and beyond university campuses, who had been brutalised, detained and even murdered by Indian security forces for their resistance.

“We condemn the blocking of the internet in five Indian states and recognise that this has been done in order to stifle dissent and restrict popular, non-violent mobilisation against its deeply unjust laws,” he said.

Some of the demands that were outlined in the memorandum by the group was the cancellation of both the CAA and the NRC Acts, to stop police brutality against non-violent protesters and release of all detained protesters. They also demanded the re-establishment of the internet connection in those states where it had been cut off.

The CAA and NRC protests are ongoing protests which started earlier this month and spread across the country like wildfire after police used batons and tear gas where more than 200 students were injured and around 100 were detained overnight in the police station.

Efforts to get a comment from the Consulate General of India were unsuccessful.

– gcinan@citizen.co.za

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