In a fiery speech on Sunday, he dismissed concerns of critics who called the law discriminatory against India’s 200 million Muslims. “If there is a smell of discrimination in anything I have done, then put me in front of the country,” he said.

The movement: Hundreds of thousands of Indians have protested the law since Parliament approved it two weeks ago. People of all faiths have joined, concerned that India’s foundation as a secular nation is being undermined. Around two dozen people have been killed, and hundreds have been arrested.

Muslim fears: Protesters are worried the law would be used in tandem with citizenship checks to strip the country’s Muslims of rights. A check in the northeastern state of Assam required 33 million residents to show that they or their families lived in India before 1971 — and left two million who could not at risk of becoming stateless.