A few weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to seek an unprecedented third term for his Hindu nationalist government, India has released guidelines for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The contentious legislation enacted in 2019 by the Modi administration granted non-Muslim refugees from India’s neighbours Indian citizenship, according to Al Jazeera.

It stated that until December 31, 2014, inhabitants of mostly Muslim Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan who fled to Hindu-majority India as Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus were eligible for citizenship.

Several rights groups branded the bill as “anti-Muslim” because it excluded the community, casting doubt on the secular nature of the biggest democracy in the world.

Modi’s administration did not design the law’s regulations in response to widespread demonstrations against its enactment in December 2019.

During the protests, which resulted in days of rioting and the deaths of scores of people, the majority of them Muslims, violence broke out in the nation’s capital, New Delhi.

“The Modi government announces implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act,” a government spokesman said, according to Reuters.

“It was an integral part of BJP’s 2019 [election] manifesto. This will pave [the] way for the persecuted to find citizenship in India,” he said, referring to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Muslim organisations claim the bill could discriminate against India’s 200 million Muslims, the third-largest Muslim community in the world, together with a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). 

They fear that in some border states, the government may take away the citizenship of Muslims who do not have proper documentation.