SAUDI ARABIA DEPORTS INDIANS FOR PROTESTING AGAINST ‘ANTI-MUSLIM’ BILL OF INDIA

Sat 12 December 2020:

Arab media has reported that Saudi Arabia deported a number of non-resident Indians (NRI) living in the Gulf state for protesting against the highly controversial register introduced by the far-right Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Inspired by Shaheen Bagh Protests in India last year, a group of NRIs, mainly from Bihar held a protest by holding placards against the proposed NRC of India in downtown of Balad in Jeddah last year. The Gulf countries have zero tolerance towards any kind of protest, demonstration, or gatherings. Unaware of this basic rule some youth, who used social media for posting undesirable posts and attended the gathering, landed in trouble.

They were arrested for violating rules that prohibits any kind of assembly and protest. Since then, they were waiting to return home.

When the Modi government introduced the NRC it sparked outrage. Many say the move was an attempt by the Hindu nationalist government to change the face of India. Amongst the inflammatory steps taken by Modi following his re-election in May 2019 was the push for new legislation, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). This controversial move, which critics say threatens to demote the status of the country’s 200 million Muslim citizens, sparked protests across the country.

In the Assam region of India almost two million people are said to have been excluded from the state’s National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Around the same time, in October 2019, Saudi Arabia and India extended their partnership especially on security matters after a new Strategic Partnership Council was agreed during a visit by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to New Delhi.

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