SEAToday.com, India-Protests were held across India on Tuesday, March 12, as the country's government implemented a controversial citizenship law that has been widely criticized for excluding Muslims a minority community whose concerns have heightened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Government.

The rules for the law announced Monday, March 11, established a religious test for migrants from every major South Asian faith other than Islam.

Critics argue that the law is evidence that Modi’s government is trying to reshape the country into a Hindu state and marginalize its 200 million Muslims. The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before December 31, 2014. The law excludes Muslims who are a majority in all three nations.

It also amends an old law that prevents illegal migrants from becoming Indian citizens and marks the first time that India an officially secular state with a religiously diverse population has set religious criteria for citizenship.

The Indian government has said those eligible can apply for Indian citizenship through an online portal. The implementation of the law has been one of the key poll promises of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party in the run-up to the general election, which is scheduled to be held by May.

Indian Law Minister, Arjun Ram Meghwal said, “This was already passed in the Parliament earlier. Yesterday the notification of their rules was released and due to this, there are special cases from three countries, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, which are causing religious persecution. This word is very important. Those who came to India due to religious persecution were our citizens. The job (of the Citizen Amendment Act) is only to give them citizenship, not to take away citizenship. I don't understand why the opposition is protesting.”

Modi's government has dismissed the notion that the law is discriminatory and defended it as a humanitarian gesture. it argues the law is meant only to extend citizenship to religious minorities fleeing persecution and would not be used against Indian citizens. (DKD)