New Delhi: In a sharp reply, the Indian government has called the US State Department’s comments on the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) “misplaced, misinformed and unwarranted”.
During a press briefing Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “The CAA is about giving citizenship, not about taking away citizenship. It addresses the issue of statelessness, provides human dignity and supports human rights. As regards the U.S. State Department’s statement on the implementation of CAA, we are of the view that it is misplaced, misinformed, and unwarranted”.
Hours earlier, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller had told reporters that Washington is concerned about the notification of the CAA on 11 March. “We are closely monitoring…how this act will be implemented…Respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law for all communities are fundamental democratic principles,” he added.
Under the CAA, refugees from six minority religious communities — barring Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan — are allowed to fast track their process towards citizenship. The act works on the assumption that these are communities which faced religious persecution in these three countries. However, it excludes communities such as the Rohingyas in Bangladesh who fled Myanmar. The act also places the condition that citizenship can only be fast-tracked if such individuals have lived in India for six years and had entered the country before 31 December, 2014.
Defending the act, the Jaiswal said it intends to grant a “safe haven to persecuted minorities belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian communities” from these three countries.
“India’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion to all its citizens. There are no grounds for any concern on treatment of minorities. Vote bank politics should not determine views about a laudable initiative to help those in distress,” he told media persons in New Delhi.
“Lectures by those who have a limited understanding of India’s pluralistic traditions and the region’s post-Partition history are best not attempted. Partners and well-wishers of India should welcome the intent with which this step has been taken,” he added.
The controversial law was passed by the Indian Parliament in 2019, sparking protests across the country, as it was also seen in tandem with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which aims to deport illegal immigrants.
A spokesperson of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights told Reuters Wednesday that the law is “fundamentally discriminatory in nature”.
“As we said in 2019, we are concerned that CAA is fundamentally discriminatory in nature and in breach of India’s international human rights obligations,” it added.
In 2019, before the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) raised concerns over the proposed legislation, and recommended sanctions against Home Minister Amit Shah and others, should it be passed.
“If the (Citizenship (Amendment) Bill) CAB passes in both houses of parliament, the United States government should consider sanctions against the Home Minister [Amit Shah] and other principal leadership,” said USCIRF in a statement on 9 December, 2019. The legislation was passed on 11 December, 2019, and the US government, back then under the Donald Trump administration, did not take any such action against India.
India is home to the second-largest Muslim population in the world, about 200 million.