INDIAN communists today slammed new citizenship rules announced by Narendra Modi’s government that exclude Muslims.

The move by the far-right Hindu nationalist leader comes just weeks before the country’s general election.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) provides a fast track to naturalisation 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.

The law was approved by the Indian parliament in 2019, but Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government held off its implementation after deadly protests broke out in the capital New Delhi and elsewhere. 

Scores were killed during days of clashes.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said in a statement that the law “makes it clear that the BJP wants to use the implementation of the CAA for divisive and polarising purposes.”

The CPI-M reiterated “its opposition to the CAA and its implementation and will continue with efforts to get this pernicious law annulled.”

Tamil Nadu CPI-M state secretary K Balakrishnan said today that the party would not allow the implementation of the CAA in the state.

He said: “The law is draconian and will divide the people on religious and communal lines. A strong protest will be conducted across the state.” 

Mr Modi’s government has defended the 2019 citizenship law as a humanitarian gesture, arguing that the law is meant only to extend citizenship to religious minorities fleeing persecution and would not be used against Indian citizens.

But India’s main opposition Congress party said the proposals were “evidently designed to polarise the elections.”

Human rights watchdog Amnesty India in a statement called the law “discriminatory” and said it “goes against the constitutional values of equality and international human rights law.”