UN Pans India’s Citizenship Law as Discriminatory in Nature

Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Office, said the amended law appears to undermine India’s commitment to equality before the law enshrined in the country’s constitution.

The new law does not extend the same protection to Muslim migrants as to six other religious minorities fleeing persecution, thereby undermining India's commitment to equality before the law, enshrined in its constitution, he said.

On Wednesday, India’s parliament passed a bill that would grant citizenship to six minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh -- all Muslim-majority nations in South Asia.

The controversial law was enacted after Indian President Ram Nath Kovind signed it on Thursday.

Violent clashes erupted in Delhi between police and thousands of university students on Friday protesting the enactment of the contentious new law.

"We understand the new law will be reviewed by the Supreme Court of India and hope it will consider carefully the compatibility of the law with India's international human rights obligations," Laurence said.

Abe cancels visit   

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a visit to India, the Indian foreign ministry said on Friday, amid tensions in a northeast region where he was due to hold summit talks with Modi.

Two people were killed in Assam state on Thursday when police opened fire on mobs torching buildings and attacking railway stations in protest at new citizenship rules signed into law on Thursday.

The new law lays out a path of Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups from neighboring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, which protesters in Assam say would convert thousands of illegal immigrants into legal residents. 

Modi had planned to host Abe in Assam beginning Sunday as part of a campaign to move high-profile diplomatic events outside Delhi to showcase India's diversity. 

"With reference to the proposed visit of Japanese PM @AbeShinzo to India, both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually convenient date in the near future," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

Japan has stepped up infrastructure development work in Assam in recent years, which the two sides were expected to highlight during the summit. Abe had also planned to visit a memorial in the nearby state of Manipur where Japanese soldiers were killed during World War Two.

A movement against immigrants from Bangladesh has raged in Assam for decades. Protesters say granting Indian nationality to more people will further strain the state's resources and lead
to the marginalization of indigenous communities. 

Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, Assam's police chief, said that there had been no clashes between protesters and police on Friday.

"Things look better definitely today ...(but) forces are all deployed everywhere," he told Reuters.