European Parliament has condemned
India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
In a move, over 600 members of the European Parliament, from centre-right to far-left, moved six resolutions condemning the India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA)
Two of the members stating that the CAA marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined and will create the largest statelessness crisis in the world.
One of these resolutions was tabled on January 29, and another on January 30, for debate and voting.
Taken together, the six groupings comprise 625 members in the 751-member European Parliament. One of these groups, comprising 66 MPs, has supported the controversial law but demanded an impartial probe into excessive use of force by security forces against anti-CAA protesters.
More than 30 people, 23 alone in Uttar Pradesh, were killed during the protests last month. Several hundreds of arrested while thousands were booked.
The resolutions may impact the way EU member-nations engage with India. India-EU summit is scheduled to be held on March 13 in Brussels which is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Commenting on the development, the central government has reportedly said that, “CAA is a matter entirely internal to India.”
“We hope the sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further. As fellow democracies, the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world,” an official in the central government said.
Meanwhile on Republic Day, anti-CAA protests took place in 30 cities across the United States the biggest one was held outside the Indian Embassy in Washington D.C.
