Home Minister Amit Shah tabled the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the upper house of India's parliament, a day after the lower house gave its approval.
The proposed law seeks to give citizenship to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs, who fled Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan before 2015. Introducing the bill in the upper house, Shah defended his government's move, saying the new law only sought to help minorities persecuted in Muslim-majority countries contiguous with India.
Unlike the lower house, where Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has a clear majority, the ruling party will likely find it more challenging to push the bill through the upper house, as it is unclear whether it can garner enough support from regional parties.Protests against the measure have flared in various parts of India, including the ethnically diverse northeastern states, where people fear that settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh could be granted citizenship.