-TheNewsMinute.com Among the most detrimental impacts of the present Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAB) is the perpetuation of the feeling of alienation in the region. News and images coming from Assam submit a picture that unrest is yet again lurking at the doors after two decades of peace and stability. Deaths, mass protest, mainly by students, halting of normal life, disruption of public property, curfew, paramilitary forces’ flag march, internet blockade,...

-United Nations News A new law in India which expedites citizenship for certain religious minorities has been criticized by the UN human rights office for being “fundamentally discriminatory in nature.” The amendment to the Citizenship Act gives priority to Hindus, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects. “Although India’s broader naturalization laws remain in place, these amendments will have a...

-The Hindu No provision to ‘snatch’ citizenship, says Home Minister Amit Shah; AIADMK, Janata Dal (U) and BJD play a key role in helping push bill through. The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, with 125 votes in favour and 99 against. The Bill for the first time allows citizenship on the basis of religion to six communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The current strength of...

-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-The Indian Express BJP is attempting to use citizenship issue to woo Namasudra community in Bengal. It is generally believed that unlike other states of India, caste and religion don’t play a significant role in West Bengal’s electoral politics. Academic literature often articulates this as West Bengal’s “exceptionalism”. As a result of the electoral decline of the Left Front and some limited attempts by the Trinamool Congress at community-based mobilisation, the...