Canada’s New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh on Wednesday strongly condemned the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which has triggered widespread protests in India.
In a tweet, Singh said the CAA “purposely discriminates Muslims and other minority communities.” Terming it “wrong”, he said governments should work to unite people and not divide them.
Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg had also expressed concern on Tuesday over the political detentions and communication blackout in India. In a tweet, he said that these steps taken by the government could threaten India’s longstanding democratic traditions.
Protests are still being organised against the new citizenship law, which seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist, Christian and Jain immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Combined with the controversial NRC exercise, fears are that this may lead to many Muslims in India being discriminated against and even stripped of their citizenship.
Protests are also being held against police brutality in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh police detained at least five minors at the Bijnor Police Cantonment and tortured them over a period of 48 hours before releasing them, HuffPost India had reported.
Uttar Pradesh police have also released photos of alleged suspects behind the violence in the state and served notices to over 60 people for “recovery” for damaged assets.
In Delhi, the police have led a massive crackdown on protesters and responded with tear gas and water cannons. The Delhi police have detained students who were protesting against the crackdown on Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. Students, detained on Monday, told Huffpost India’s Betwa Sharma that the Delhi Police wanted to “black out” reports of violence coming in from Uttar Pradesh.
Women’s rights activist Kavita Krishnan, who has returned from a fact-finding mission in Meerut, told Betwa Sharma that the policemen chased people into narrow lanes and shot them from the back. She said that many of them were not protesters at all. “The people who have died are largely labourers and very very poor workers.”
Ahead of the planned demonstrations in Delhi last week, the Delhi police imposed Section 144 around Red Fort and Mandi House, and ordered suspension of mobile internet services in some areas of the national capital. Vodafone and Airtel confirmed that as per government orders, the internet services were suspended in some areas.
Delhi’s internet shutdown, as Huffpost India reported earlier, is only the latest in a long string of such actions across the country. In 2019, InternetShutdowns, a shutdown tracked by SFLC.in, has listed 77 Internet shutdowns in India.