US body asks Trump Admin to slap sanction on India’s HM for Citizenship Bill
The US Government panel on religious freedom has slammed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), inviting strong protest from India.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said the CAB is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction and asked the US administration to consider imposing sanctions against Home Minister Amit Shah and other principal Indian leadership if the Bill with the “religious criterion” is enacted into a law.
The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal Government entity established by the US Congress to analyse and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. The USCIRF on its website says it makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief.
Taking exception to USCIRF statement, India on Tuesday said it was ‘regrettable” that the entity, which has no locus standi on the issue, has chosen to be guided by its “prejudices and biases” on the matter.
Rejecting comments by the USCIRF, Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said here the position articulated by the commission was not surprising given its past record.
“It is, however, regrettable that the body has chosen to be guided only by its prejudices and biases on a matter on which it clearly has little knowledge and no locus standi,” he asserted. Around a decade back, the USCIRF had also favoured denying of tourist visa to Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat.
In its statement, the USCIRF said, “CAB is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction; it runs counter to India’s rich history of secular pluralism and the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law regardless of faith,” adding that it was deeply troubled over the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Kumar asserted that every nation, including the US, has the right to enumerate and validate its citizenry, and to exercise the prerogative through various policies.
He said the statement on the Bill is “neither accurate nor warranted,” adding the Bill provides expedited consideration for Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities already in India from certain contiguous countries.
He said the proposed legislation seeks to address their current difficulties and meet their basic human rights and that such an initiative should not be criticised by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom.
“The CAB does not affect the existing avenues available to all communities interested in seeking citizenship from doing so. The recent record of granting such citizenship would bear out the Government of India’s objectivity in that regard,” Kumar said.
“Neither the CAB nor the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process seeks to strip citizenship from any Indian citizen of any faith. Suggestions to that effect are motivated and unjustified,” Kumar said.
