New Delhi: Seattle City Council has become the first legislative body in the United States to pass a resolution against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC). Seattle City Council Resolution 31926, opposing the CAA and the NRC, was passed Monday.
This comes amid nationwide outrage against the CAA and the NRC. In January, a group of 154 members of the European Parliament had also drafted an anti-CAA resolution arguing that the law could lead to the “largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause widespread human suffering.” The European Parliament has deferred voting on the resolution.
The Seattle City Council resolution, introduced by member Kshama Sawant, stated that “it is the duty of ordinary people to oppose the dangerous rise of the far right everywhere in the world, and believes that the rapidly expanding authoritarianism of the Modi government in nuclear-armed India is of concern, not only to the millions of Muslims, oppressed castes, women, indigenous, and LGBT people in India, but also to Seattle’s South Asian immigrant community and those opposed to Trump and the right wing in the United States”.
Javed Sikander, spokesperson, Seattle Chapter of the Indian American Muslim Council, said, “We welcome the Seattle City Council’s resolution denouncing the divisive and draconian CAA and NRC. These acts are unconstitutional and designed to disenfranchise several million Muslim, Dalits and other minorities in order to create a fascist state.”
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The resolution read that the “far-right” BJP government led by PM Modi “has been criticised for promoting violence against religious minorities and silencing dissent”.
“Most Indians lack documentation such as birth certificates to prove citizenship, and a nationwide expansion of the NRC could strip hundreds of millions of people left out of the CAA of their citizenship rights with no option to be re-naturalised,” it added.
Moreover, the resolution urges the Indian Parliament to uphold the Indian Constitution.
The Seattle City Council also urged the United States Congress to “a) support legislation censuring the Republic of India for adopting these policies and b) call for the Parliament of India to uphold the Indian Constitution by repealing the Citizenship Amendment Act, stopping the National Register of Citizens, and taking steps towards helping refugees by ratifying various UN treaties on refugees”.
NRI community in Seattle
As of 2016, Seattle’s demography includes over 0.5 per cent of Indian-Americans.
Seattle has a Democratic mayor and the state it’s in, Washington, has been the Democratic party’s stronghold. The Seattle City Council is responsible for approving mayoral appointees, levying taxes, amending city laws etc.
In December 2019, some people from the NRI community in Seattle also rallied in support of the CAA.
A number of people from the South Asian community in Seattle have spoken out against the CAA. Local organisations like API Chaya, Tasveer, IAMC Seattle, Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Washington, Seattle South Asians Building Accountability and Healing (SABAH), Khalsa Gurmat Centre Federal Way, Gurudwara of Renton, Seattle LGBTQ Commission etc. joined national organisations Amnesty International USA and Ambedkar King Study Circle in the call for passing the resolution.
Several Seattle residents expressed their support for the resolution. Veena Roy of SABAH said “as South Asians in Seattle, SABAH confirms that the CAA is not an internal issues to India, and that Seattle must take a stand against it”.
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