Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS): Global brokerage firm CLSA in a recent report said that the powerful public backlash against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will worsen demand prospects in the economy.

Terming it a "gross miscalculation", the brokerage firm said the controversial bill may well be the government's "devious strategy of deflecting public concerns about job and income prospects..."

"There is nothing good, in our view, that can be said about that can be said about the Citizen Act and National Citizen Act and National Citizens Register," CLSA said, according to a Business Insider India report.

CLSA's concerns gain significance as India is currently witnessing a sharp price hike and steep fall in economic activity simultaneously. Former Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian, said that the Indian economy is in the midst of a "Great Slowdown".

India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth continued its downward spiral for the seventh consecutive quarter, falling to 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2019-20. The growth rate was the slowest in more than six years.

Global ratings agency Fitch Ratings last month lowered India's economic growth forecast to 4.6 per cent in 2019-20 due to domestic factors, in particular a squeeze in credit availability from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and deterioration in business and consumer confidence.

Nineteen people have died while 1,113 people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh since December 10 during the violence in the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act according to Uttar Pradesh police.