FRANCE 24 reports from a New Delhi protest against India’s controversial citizenship law, which has sparked mass demonstrations nationwide.
Late Monday night, a protest at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University was met with a violent raid by Delhi police. As images of police brutality against protestors circulated on social media and Indian television, fresh protests broke out across the country. FRANCE 24’s Mandakini Gahlot attended one of them, at India Gate in the heart of New Delhi.
“People are being divided along religious lines and that’s highly discriminative,” said one protester.
Opposition leader Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress party staged a symbolic sit-in at India Gate earlier in the evening, throwing her party’s weight behind student protesters.
The law that sparked the protests fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim migrants to India from three neighbouring countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Critics say it is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalise India’s 200 million Muslims.
Besides the repeal of the citizenship law, protesters are also demanding an enquiry into police brutality during the demonstrations. So far, the protests have left six people dead in the northeast and as many 200 injured in New Delhi.
Click on the player above to watch Mandakini Gahlot's report
