Indian military deployed and internet shut down as protests rage against citizenship bill

CNN ^ | December 12, 2019 | Jessie Yeung, Helen Regan and Omar Khan,

[BenLurkin]

Troops have been deployed to India's ethnically diverse northeastern states of Assam and Tripura, amid violent protests against the passing of a controversial and far-reaching law that offers a path to Indian citizenship for non-Mulism minorities from three neighboring countries.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was passed by the country's parliament on Wednesday, has been described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government as a means of protecting vulnerable groups from persecution.

Critics, however, say the bill marginalizes Muslims and undermines the country's secular constitution. Others say it risks bringing an unwanted influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan into India's northern states. Indigenous groups in both states fear naturalizing large numbers of immigrants will change the region's demographics and way of life. India's northeast is home to more than 200 distinct indigenous minority groups. Both Assam and Tripura share a border with Bangladesh and some see the arrival of foreigners as a cultural threat regardless of religion; for others, anti-immigrant sentiment remains closely tied to religious divisions.

Images from the protests show crowds chanting slogans and holding signs that read, "We are Assamese and proud" and "Tripura is not the dumping ground of illegal migrants."

[entropy12]

India has no shortage of brain resources. With a population 4 times bigger than US, and more engineers & scientists being graduated every year, there is no shortage possible.

As for the restriction on importing Muslim immigrants, you are correct in saying the Indian Muslims are not prone to terrorism and are well integrated. The danger is importing radical Islam foreign Muslims from other countries.

Indian Muslims outnumber Muslims in Saudi Arabia by significantly large numbers. Yet the terrorists from Saudi Arabia outnumber terrorists from India by orders of magnitude.