Ms Bachelet has previously expressed concerns about the CAA and the violent police crackdown on
protesters against the law, which had already claimed lives in Uttar Pradesh state and elsewhere. The mostly
anti-Muslim riots in Delhi last week began with clashes between those protesting and counter-protesting
over the law.
Ms Bachelet said she was concerned by reports of “police inaction in the face of attacks against Muslims by
other groups”. And last month, during her regular update to the UN human rights council, she said the
CAA was “of great concern”, adding that “Indians in huge numbers, and from all communities, have
expressed – in a mostly peaceful manner – their opposition to the Act, and support for the country’s long
tradition of secularism”.
The Modi government is facing mounting calls for home minister Amit Shah’s resignation in the wake of
the violence, with police accused of standing by, or in some cases, urging on mobs as mosques and Muslim
properties were destroyed. Mr Shah is responsible for policing in the capital.
Yet despite last week’s riots being the deadliest in Delhi since 1984, the government’s top leadership have
offered precious little in the way of public comment. Mr Shah did not mention Delhi directly when
addressing a rally for the ruling BJP party in West Bengal on Sunday, and Mr Modi has only tweeted, in
English, calling for “peace and brotherhood”.
The government has, however, been swift and vociferous in its condemnation of any members of the
international community raising concerns over the breakdown in law and order, and particularly the
police’s failure to protect Muslims.
Raveesh Kumar, the Indian foreign ministry’s spokesperson, said India’s mission to Geneva was informed of
Ms Bachelet’s application to the supreme court earlier this week.
He said the CAA was “an internal matter of India and concerns the sovereign right of the Indian Parliament
to make laws”. “We strongly believe that no foreign party has any locus standi on issues pertaining to
India’s sovereignty,” he said.
Yesterday, India summoned the Iranian ambassador after Tehran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, tweeted
that his country “condemns the wave of organised violence against Indian Muslims”.
Iran became the fourth Muslim-majority nation to speak out over the Delhi riots, after Pakistan, Turkey and
Indonesia raised their concerns.
The US president Donald Trump failed to do so, despite the fact they were unfolding just across the city
from his high-level trade talks with Indian officials. He later told a press conference that handling the riots
was “up to India”.
And the UK government also toed a careful line in its response to the riots yesterday, during an urgent
question raised in parliament by the opposition.
Labour accused India of behaving “like a state with no regard for human rights and the rule of law or the
freedom of religion”, adding that it must “face the consequences of its behaviour”.
Shadow foreign office minister Khalid Mahmood described the CAA as “enabling documented migrants
from neighbouring countries to seek Indian citizenship provided they meet one condition – they’re not
Muslim”. “This is the first such law that has been passed in India since its independence,” he said.
Representing Johnson’s government, the foreign office minister Nigel Adams said the UK was “monitoring
closely” developments in India, saying that “the events in Delhi last week were very concerning and the
situation is still tense”.
But he failed to specifically criticise the Indian authorities, saying: “The death of one protester is one too