INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi denied today that there was “any trace of divisiveness” in his notorious Citizenship Amendment Act, which excludes Muslim refugees from consideration for citizenship.

He denounced the opposition Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for spreading “lies and fear” about the Act, which has provoked mass protests across India, and said the demonstrators were “trying every tactic to push me out of power.” Twenty-three people have so far been killed in clashes with the police and thousands have been arrested.

The government has cut off internet access in parts of New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and the whole state of Assam in recent days in a bid to stop protesters organising. Assam has seen the biggest protests, given the Modi government has already excluded two million of its native-born residents from citizenship using a National Register of Citizens. India is building a vast detention centre in Assam which critics say will be used to incarcerate people who lose their citizenship, though Mr Modi denied this yesterday.