On December 11, 2019, new citizenship law was passed by India’s parliament. This no meets religion or criteria for gaining Indian citizenship. This also creates an expedited path to citizenship in anomaly for three countries Pakistan Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had people illegally enter Indian in 2014. On the condition that They practice Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Jainism or Zoroastrianism. The big thing missing from the list is Islam, a religion practiced by about 15.5% of India’s population. Now, India is shutting down mobile communication and the Internet in areas across the country. The northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the cities of New Delhi and Magloire, have been part of the shutdown. This shutdown attempts to silence around 258 million Indians. Three telecommunications networks followed the lead and cut mobile communications in areas of New Delhi but soon restored it. This law is sparking outrage in India since the state was meant to be welcomed to place for all religions. This shut down not only affects Muslims but the country as a whole. In other democratic state’s eyes this is not only suppressing a minority within its borders but its people’s freedom of speech. I believe the government-controlled shutdowns will further aggravate the population. This strategy is being used to try and prevent protests but I believe it’ll ignite them. In general, people do not like their thoughts being suppressed and that is exactly what India is trying to do to it’s being post-Citizenship Act. I am intrigued to see how this will go over with the Muslim population and if India plans on continuing communications shutdowns. If another protest begins, it’ll be terrible for the government since they are still dealing with the public outrage over other current issues. One of them being, the cruel and evil sexual assaults and murders of multiple women that occurred two weeks ago.
