KOLKATA: India deployed troops on Saturday to quell deadly protests that have erupted in the state of West Bengal over legislation to change how Muslim-owned properties are managed.

Police fired tear gas at the thousands of demonstrators who gathered on Friday in the state’s Murshidabad district. Three people, including a child, were killed, police said on Saturday.

“So far, 118 people have been arrested in connection with the violence,” said Jawed Shamim, a senior police official in the state, adding that at least 15 police officers were injured.

The state’s high court ordered federal troops to deploy. The Waqf amendment bill that set off the protests was passed earlier this month after heated debate.

According to the ruling Hindu nationalist government, it will boost transparency around land management by holding accountable powerful Waqf boards, which control properties gifted by Muslim charitable endowments.

But the opposition has called the bill a polarising “attack” on India’s Muslim minority. They accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to win favour with its right-wing Hindu base.

After the bill’s passage, Modi called it a “watershed moment”. Opposition Congress Party chief Rahul Gandhi meanwhile said the bill was “aimed at Muslims today but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future”.

Modi’s decade as premier has seen him cultivate an image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority Hindu faith.

His government revoked the constitutional autonomy of India’s Muslim-majority region Kashmir, and backed the construction of a temple on grounds where a mosque stood for centuries before it was torn down by Hindu zealots in 1992.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2025