The Citizenship Amendment Act protests also known previously as the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill protests of 2019 in India, or the CAB protests are a series of ongoing protests in India, that began in Assam,[20][21][22] Delhi,[23][24] Meghalaya,[25] Manipur and Tripura[26] and spread to the other parts of India.[27] The protests were against The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which was cleared by the Union cabinet on 4 December 2019, and later passed by both houses of the Parliament turning the bill into an Act of the Parliament.
| Citizenship Amendment Act protests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Jamia Milia Islamia students protesting | |||
| Date | December 2019 - ongoing | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by |
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| Goals |
| ||
| Methods | Civil disobedience, demonstrations, gherao, vandalism, hashtag activism | ||
| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
| Lead figures | |||
| |||
| Casualties | |||
| Death(s) | 6[15][16][17][18] | ||
| Injuries | 175[14] | ||
| Arrested | 1000+[19] | ||
| Detained | ~1600[14] | ||
The protests started in Assam on 4 December 2019, after the bill was passed in parliament. Later, protests erupted in all of Northeast India, and subsequently all the major cities of India. On 15 December, police forcefully entered the campus of Jamia Milia Islamia, where protests were being held, and detained the students. The police brutality was widely criticized, and resulted in reactionary protests across the country.
The protests have resulted in more than a thousand arrests and six deaths.[19]
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) is an act of the Indian parliament amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 to give a path to Indian citizenship to illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before 31 December 2014. It also seeks to relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalisation from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants.
The parliamentary opposition claims that the CAA ringfences Muslim identity by declaring India a welcome refuge to all other religious communities, that it seeks to legally establish Muslims as second-class citizens of India by providing preferential treatment to other groups and therefore violates the Constitution’s Article 14, the fundamental right to equality to all persons.[28]
The passage of the Act caused protests in India.[29] Muslim groups and secular groups have protested alleging religious discrimination. The people of Assam and other northeastern states continue to protest fearing that the non-Muslim illegal immigrants in their regions would be allowed to stay.[30]
The Act directly challenges the clause 5 of 1985 Assam Accord. The Act was criticized by liberal organizations across the country, with the Indian National Congress and other major political parties opposing it. The states of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab and Kerala have refused to implement it.[31]
After the bill was cleared on 4 December 2019, violent protests erupted in Assam, especially in Guwahati, and other areas in the state.[32] Reactionary protests were held in well as several metropolitan cities across India, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai[33][34][35][36][37]
As a reaction, protests were also held at universities across the country, including IIT Bombay[33], Presidency University[38], Jamia Milia Islamia[39][40][41], Osmania University[42], University of Delhi[43], Panjab University[44], and Aligarh Muslim University.[45]
AssamEdit
After the bill was cleared on 4 December 2019, violent protests erupted in Assam, especially in Guwahati, and other areas in the state.[46] In Dispur, several thousands of protesters broke down police barricades to protest in front of the Assam Legislative Assembly building.[47][48] Demonstrations were held in Agartala.[49]
In Dibrugarh, the All Assam Student's Union vandalized the district office of the Asom Gana Parishad which had voted in favor of the act and is a part of the ruling Coalition.[50]
Access to the internet was restricted in the north-eastern state of Assam by the administrative authorities.[19] Curfew was declared in Assam and Tripura due to the protests.[51] However, the army had to be called in to deploy as protestors defied those curfews. Railway services were suspended and some airlines started offering rescheduling or cancellation fee waivers in those areas.[52] Officials reported that at least two people died after clashes with police in Guwahati, Assam.[53]
West BengalEdit
On Saturday, 14 December, violent protests occurred in West Bengal, the protestors attacked railway stations and public buses. Five trains were set on fire by the protestors in Lalgola and Krishnapur railway stations in Murshidabad district and railway tracks were damaged in Suti.[54]
Tens of thousands of people joined a demonstration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress party.[55]
Uttar PradeshEdit
Protests were held in Aligarh, Kanpur, Bareilly, and Lucknow.[56]
In response to the police crackdown at Jamia Millia University in Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University over the Citizenship Amendment Act, clashes between the police and protesters occurred in Mau, Uttar Pradesh where vehicles were torched and stones pelted. A portion of the police station at Mirza Hadipura area of Mau district was set on fire.[57]
Aligarh Muslim UniversityEdit
On the evening of 15 December, police officers forcefully entered the campus of Aligarh Muslim University and assaulted the students. At least 60 students were injured including the president of the students Union. The access to the internet was restricted in the area by the district administration.[58]
DelhiEdit
On 15 December, in the national capital, three Delhi Transport Corporation buses were attacked.[59]
On 16 December, Priyanka Gandhi led a silent protest at the India Gate along with about three hundred congress workers to show solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia.[60]
Jamia Millia IslamiaEdit
On the morning of 15 December, more than two thousand students of Jamia Millia Islamia University joined the protests against the act in Delhi.[61]
In the night on the same day, hundreds of police officers forcefully entered the campus of Jamia Millia Islamia University, without the permission of college authority.[62] The police used batons and tear gas on the protesting students. Nearly a hundred students were detained by the Delhi police and released at 3:30 am next morning.[57] The visuals of students being dragged and assaulted by the police was telecasted in the news. Students from all across Delhi joined the agitation.[63]
The police violence was heavily criticized by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, actor John Cusack and Rajkummar Rao condemned the police violence, with Cusack referring it to fascism.[64] Actor Swara Bhaskar, praised the students protests for raising their voice against communalism and called the police action as dictatorial, brutal, shocking and shameful. She also questioned if it was the police and not the protesters who vandalized the property in Delhi and Aligarh.[65]
In response to the police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University, protests were also joined by the educational institutions of IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, Jadavpur University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, IISc, Pondicherry University, IIM Ahmedabad[66], as well as the Students' Federation of India. The students of Jadavpur University, West Bengal, called a protest gathering on 16th December, to "condemn the brutal state terror on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University".[67]
LondonEdit
The Assamese community in London staged a protest outside the High Commission of India.[68]
Flights and trains were suspended as a result of the protest.[69] The government imposed an internet shutdown in the states of Assam, Tripura[6] and 5 Bengal districts.[70] No play was possible on the fourth day of the cricket match between Assam and Services in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy because of the protests.[71] The India-Japan summit in Guwahati, which was supposed to be attended by Shinzo Abe was also cancelled.[72][73] France, Israel, the U.S. and the U.K. have issued travel advisories for nationals travelling to India.[74][75]