Brussels: (Rasheed Ahmed) A resolution on India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act came
under debate at the European Parliament Brussels. The voting on the resolution will take place early
March this year. MEPs representing various Party Groups took part in the debate. According to the rules
representatives of all the party groups and alliances in the European Parliament are given chance to
express their views. MEPs from various party groups took part in the debate and expressed concerns
over discriminatory nature of the law and called for taking up this issue with Indian government. The
voting on resolution has been delayed until March as currently the case is being heard by the Supreme
Court of India.
Prominent among those who participated in the debate included MEPs Michael Gahler John
Howarth, Scot Ainslee, Phil Bennion, Idoia Villanueva Ruiz, Fabio Castaldo, besides Shaffaq Muhammed
, the principle writer of the draft resolution.
Michael Gahler, MEP from Germany representing European Peoples Party Group in the European
Parliament, termed CAA and NRC problematic and said “since these led to violence and death, the EU
needed to have a closer look on what’s happening in the country (India)”. He said EU should assess the
situation, as it is feared that under NRC many people would not be able to prove nationalities.
British MEP John Howarth, representing Group of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
strongly criticised India for initiating CAA for being highly discriminatory piece of legislation targeting a
specific religious group. He said Muslims were being singled out He said “the threats that this legislation
represents to the secular nature of India should be clear”. He pointed out that violence has increased
and there is a Hindu nationalist government in India, which is not interested in addressing these issue.
“A strong message needs to be sent to the Indian government, whether it is Kashmir or rights of citizens,
that respect for human rights was essential for the partnership with the EU and without respect for
human rights India’s relations with the EU would be under serious threat”, he added.
MEP Scott Ainslie of Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance termed CAA as an Islamophobic policy
which could deny 200 million Muslims, nearly half the population of the EU towards statelessness,
incarceration and deportation. He said it was shameful that in the state of Assam, 1.9 million citizens
have already suffered from this nationalistic move of Modi. He urged the EU to stay principled and fight
against human rights violations and injustices and take concrete actions as just words are not enough.
Fabio Massimo Castaldo MEP from Italy representing Non-attached Members group said “As an elected
representative, condemn the Indian government decision and hope that it would reconsider the CAA
and repeal it as this law is discriminatory and divisive that gives certain rights to some and denies the
same to others” He expressed concern that NRC could make a lot of people stateless and could lead to a
lot of resentment and tension in Muslim community. He said if the aim was to protect persecuted
communities, why it did not include other persecuted minorities like Rohingyas in Myanmar, Biharis in
Bangladesh etc.
Phil Bennion, MEP, representing Renew Europe Group said “The CAA is seriously flawed, it discriminates
on religious grounds and is contrary to the principle of secularism and also against India’s obligations
towards human rights law”. He said that Indian government must ensure that its security forces exercise
restraint in dealing with the protestors and they should be held to account for their excessive use of
force.
Spanish MEP Idoia Villanueva Ruiz of Group of European United Left -Nordic Green, said the recently-
passed laws in India, namely the CAA 2019 and National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the revocation of
Articles 370 and 35A, are all conflicted with democratic values and violated international law. She said
Modi government's repression of Kashmir was tantamount to fascism and should be condemned.
Shafaq Mohammad a Liberal Democrat MEP from the UK, who was among the authors of the resolution
said “Had thought that this house had learned its lessons from (Holocaust) history and prepared to act
to stop any such thing again, but the postponement vote indicates, still there are people who have yet
to learn” He said if anything terrible happens, and a group of people made stateless, he will tell the
future generations he had done anything possible to caution this house but there are people in this
house for whom business and trade interest are more important than human rights. He further said the
CAA must be judged on the basis of international law and must be repealed if it contradicts it.
The voting on the resolution that was supposed to take place on 29th January has been deferred until
early March.