JNU attack: Protests continue across India as govt pushes for calm

Union minister Prakash Javadekar expressed confidence that the ongoing police probe will ‘unmask’ the accused

Students came out in large numbers across the country on Wednesday to protest Sunday’s violence against students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) while Opposition parties, including the Congress, announced they would soon meet to decide their future course of action.

In view of the continuing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the inaugural function of the third Khelo India event to be held in Guwahati from January 10 to 22. In a separate development, the Centre moved the Supreme Court on the day, seeking transfer of petitions challenging constitutional validity of the CAA pending before different high courts to the top court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde posted the matter for January 10. The Bench, also comprising justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, said, “We are of the prima facie view that high courts should hear petitions challenging CAA and in case there is a conflict then we may look into it”.

Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, appearing for the Centre, said there would be a problem as different high courts may take conflicting views and lawyers will move to different states to attend proceedings. The top court said lawyers moving to different states to attend hearings was not its priority…

CAA, NRC ‘may affect status’ of Muslims in India: US Congressional report

The December 18 report also said that for the first time in independent India’s history, a religious criterion has been added to the country’s naturalization process.

The amended citizenship law along with a National Register of Citizens (NRC) being planned by the Narendra Modi government “may affect the status” of Muslim minority in India, a report by US Congressional Research Service (CRS) has said. The December 18 report also said that for the first time in independent India’s history, a religious criterion has been added to the country’s naturalization process.

The CRS is an independent research wing of the US Congress which prepares reports periodically on issues of domestic and global importance for the lawmakers to take informed decision. These are not considered as official reports of the US Congress.

“In tandem with a National Register of Citizens (NRC) planned by the federal government, the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) may affect the status of India’s large Muslim minority of roughly 200 million,” said the CRS in its first ever report on the amended Citizenship law.

According to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, non-Muslim refugees who came to India till December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given Indian citizenship. Since both houses of Parliament approved amendments to the citizenship law earlier this month, protests – sometimes violent – have taken place across the country during which many protesters have died, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka…

CAA, NRC protests : Many UP cities switch off internet to foil unrest

Thousands of police and paramilitary are on the streets in Uttar Pradesh to ensure peace for Friday prayers.

CAA Protests: A huge number of police and paramilitary are in the city in Uttar Pradesh to guarantee harmony for Friday supplications, trying to anticipate brutality that killed at any rate 19 individuals in about fourteen days of fights against the new citizenship law. Web has been suspended in 14 urban communities, including Bulandshar, Mathura, Ghaziabad and Agra, for the day to avoid bits of gossip during challenges the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

India has been shaken by shows since December 12, after the administration authorized CAA that gives non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who moved here before 2015 a pathway to Indian citizenship.

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 Police walk through Gorakhpur

Police walked through Gorakhpur and met with harmony boards of trustees after savagery in the upper east Uttar Pradesh town on November 20. Paramilitary power and state police have been conveyed in the city, Gorakhpur District Magistrate Vijyendra Pandiyan told PTI.

Web off again in UP urban areas

Web suspended in Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli again after about seven days of administration. In Agra, web will be suspended till Friday evening, detailed news organization PTI citing an anonymous cop….

Citizenship Act or NRC has nothing to do with Indian Muslims, says PM Modi

Act about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbours, says Modi

Accusing the Opposition of pursuing “divide and rule politics” and stoking violence over the amended citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that the legislation and the National Register of Citizen (NRC) had nothing to do with Indian Muslims, as he sought to assuage their concerns amid widespread protests.

Strongly defending the contentious law, he said at a rally it was about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries and did not snatch anybody’s rights, as he made an appeal for peace. On the NRC, Modi sought to allay apprehensions, especially among Muslims, saying his government has never discussed it since coming to power for the first time in 2014.

It has been discussed neither in Parliament nor in the Cabinet, he added. “Since my government first came to power in 2014, I want to tell 130 crore countrymen, there has never been a discussion on this NRC,” he said, noting that it was done only in Assam due to a Supreme Court order. He cited a Hindi idiom to liken the apprehensions about the NRC in a section of society to somebody getting scared after being told that a crow has cut his ears.

“Congress and its friends have been shouting that see the crow has flown after cutting your ear. And some people began chasing the crow. They should first check if the crow has cut their ears or not…. First you find out if anything has been done on the NRC,” he said. Several Union ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, have often pitched for a nationwide National Register of Citizens exercise, with Shah telling Parliament recently that it will be carried out…Read More