How Foreign Media Reacted To CAB

In a historic move, Parliament on Wednesday passed the breakthrough and contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. This Citizenship (Amendment) Bill or CAB has brought violent public protests in the north-eastern states of Assam and Tripura over opposition to the bill. The Bill seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

The Indian Army has sent 2 columns - each comprising 70 soldiers. The north-eastern states are up in arms with the government rushing Army to the burning Assam and Tripura to verbose tension. A curfew has been declared in many parts of the Northeast and mobile and Internet service has been suspended. The army was called in at 4 places and Assam Rifles personnel were deployed in Tripura.

While the BJP and PM Narendra Modi greeted the passing of the CAB as historic, the soon-to-be legislation has divided the political camps and citizens. Here's how the foreign media reacted to the landmark change in India's citizenship laws.

The New York Times headline read, "Indian Parliament Passes Divisive Citizenship Bill, Moving It Closer to Law". The article further writes, "The upper house of the Indian Parliament passed a contentious citizenship bill on Wednesday, bringing a religiously polarizing measure one step closer to the law as new protests erupted across the country."

The Washington Post said, "India passes controversial citizenship law excluding Muslim migrants". The article says, "Lawmakers in India on Wednesday passed a fundamental change to its citizenship law to include religion as a criterion for nationality for the first time, deepening concerns that a country founded on secular ideals is becoming a Hindu state that treats Muslims as second-class citizens."

In the United Kingdom, the Guardian had the straightforward headline ‘India braces for protests over citizenship bill excluding Muslims’, while BBC News stated the “Citizenship Amendment Bill: India’s new ‘anti-Muslim’ law causes uproar”.

Al Jazeera has written, "The bill brings sweeping changes to India's 64-year-old citizenship law by giving citizenship to "persecuted" minorities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians - from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan."

The Independent has said, "India's ruling Hindu nationalist government has won parliamentary approval for a controversial law that would make it easier for refugees of certain faiths from neighboring countries to gain citizenship, but not Muslims."