India: Protesters slam citizenship bill for creating 'Hindu-Muslim divide'

M/S Activists burning bill in New Delhi
M/S Activist being arrested for burning bill
M/S Man climbing on protesters shoulders
C/U Man climbing on protesters shoulders
M/S Protesters and police clashing
SOT, Tehseen Poonawalla, Political analyst and social activist: "This protest was to burn the official copy of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. This bill is illegal as [it is] anti-constitutional. It is unconstitutional. The fact of this bill is that the present government wants to do a Hindu-Muslim divide. Why does it want to do a Hindu-Muslim divide? It wants to do a Hindu-Muslim divide because it has failed on the economy, it has failed on refunding money to states, it has failed on every aspect a $5 trillion (€4.49 trillion) promise, so it wants to divert issues. But we will not let them divert issues."
C/U Placard *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Tehseen Poonawalla, Political analyst and social activist: ‘"Today *inaudible* Narendra Modi’s police are so scared that I burned one official copy of the bill out here, they got so scared. Imagine when every household in the country will burn this bill. Imagine when there will be chaos on the road. Imagine when people will not cooperate with this government. We are not scared of Nardenra Modi’s jails and I will burn this bill inside of the parliament, they can do what they want.’’
M/S Protesters
C/U Placards
M/S Protesters
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W/S Protesters marching
W/S Protesters marching
SOT, Kiran Walia, Member of Legislative assembly and Indian National Congress Party: "This citizen register is a whole farcical claim to make a Hindu-Muslim issue, [inaudible] issue, so that attention is diverted from the total breakdown of the machinery, from the total breakdown of the economy.’"
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Protest
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Truck with loudspeakers at protest
W/S Protesters marching
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Protesters marching `
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Protesters marching
M/S Protesters marching
W/S Protest
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M/S Protester
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W/S Protest
SCRIPT
Protesters symbolically burned a copy of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in a demonstration against the controversial bill in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The protests took place near the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The controversial bill, which has been already approved in the Indian parliament, seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants, such as Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Buddhists from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Member of the Legislative Assembly and the opposition Indian National Congress Party, Kiran Walia called the measure a "farcical claim" saying that it has been done to draw attention away from other issues in India, namely "the total breakdown of the machinery [and] the total breakdown of the economy."
These sentiments were shared by political analyst and social activist Tehseen Poonawalla, who said "The fact of this bill is that the present government wants to do a Hindu-Muslim divide. Why does it want to do a Hindu-Muslim divide? It wants to do a Hindu-Muslim divide because it has failed on the economy, it has failed on refunding money to states, it has failed on every aspect a $5 trillion (€4.49 trillion) promise so it wants to divert issues. But we will not let them divert issues."
Critics say that the bill could cause further ostracization of the some 200 million Muslims living in India.