Aisa Desh Hai Mera: Pride And Prejudice Bring India To A Grinding Halt Over New Citizenship Law

In an unprecedented showdown against PM Narendra Modi-led NDA government¡¯s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, thousands of university students flooded the streets of India's capital, while a southern state government led a march and demonstrators held a silent protest in the northeast on Monday.

The protests are aimed at opposing a new law that gives citizenship to non-Muslims who entered India illegally to flee religious persecution in several neighbouring countries.

But vociferous demonstrations that have been rocking the world¡¯s largest democracy ever since Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the contentious bill in the Parliament reached their crescendo, on Sunday, as police entered the premises of a leading university and thrashed its students after numerous cases of violence surfaced in the national capital.

The protests in New Delhi followed a night of violent clashes between police and demonstrators at Jamia Millia Islamia University. People who student organizers claim were not students set at least three buses on fire and police stormed the university library, firing tear gas at students crouched under desks.

Members of Prime Minister Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said opposition parties were using the students as pawns.

At Jamia Millia Islamia University on Monday, thousands stood outside the locked-down campus. Inside, hundreds of students took part in a peaceful sit-in, holding placards denouncing the injuries of dozens of students the night before.

The government maintains that the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was approved by Parliament last week, will make India a safe haven for Hindus and other religious minorities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But critics say the legislation, which for the first time conditions Indian citizenship on religion, violates the secular constitution of the world's largest democracy.

The law's passage has triggered protests across India, but Assam, the centre of a decades-old movement against illegal immigrants, has seen the highest toll.

At least 500 prominent personalities from fields such as arts and the sciences have called the law as divisive and demanded that it be withdrawn. At least five states have come forward and said that they will not allow it to be implemented. A senior IPS officer has resigned in protest while a call for Civil Disobedience, on the lines of Mahatma Gandhi¡¯s struggle that led to India¡¯s freedom, have gained ground.

Assam police officials say officers have fatally shot five protesters in the state capital of Guwahati while attempting to restore order to a city that has been engulfed in demonstrations since last week. About 1,500 people have been arrested for violence including arson and vandalism, police spokesman G.P. Singh was quoted as saying by news agency Associated Press. He added that authorities were reviewing surveillance videos and anticipated making more arrests.

On Monday, prominent names from the film fraternity, including director Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu, Konkona Sensharma and Sudhir Mishra condemned the police crackdown on students while accusing the government of trying to stifle the voices of dissent against Citizenship Amendment Act.

As a nation that was looked up to by the rest of the world for its democratic norms and diversity in thought, word, deed and principle comes down to a grinding halt in the face of sustained unrest and demonstrations, many of its citizens find themselves at a loss of words, and perhaps a sense of shock that a regime voted to power by the people can go to any extent in order to implement a law that is being frowned upon by a considerable section of Indian population who are still clinging on to the values that are enshrined in Indian constitution.

In this tug of war between PRIDE of the ESTABLISHMENT and the PREJUDICE of the PEOPLE, India is being unmade and torn into shreds in manners that were rarely seen in the nation¡¯s history previously. It is a state of utter chaos, madness as India has now shifted its war to its very own people, with police and security personnel leading the charge against them.

The use of state machinery and security bodies to throttle dissent and coerce dissenters by delegitimising their right to protest has emerged as a dangerous trend that may do more harm to the nation in the long run than the sum total of all gains that the controversial citizenship law may bring.