Citizen Amendment Bill: India Hits Back At US Commission Seeking Sanctions On Amit Shah, Govt

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Bill that was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday midnight, "provides expedited consideration for Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities already in India from certain contiguous countries".

India said such an initiative should be welcomed, not criticized by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom. (File Photo/ AFP)

New Delhi: Mentioning that the critical comments made by a US federal commission on the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) are nor accurate nor warranted, India on Tuesday said that the American body on international religious freedom has chosen to be guided only by its biases on a matter on which it has no locus standi. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, in a statement said, the Bill that was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday midnight, "provides expedited consideration for Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities already in India from certain contiguous countries". Kumar said that the Bill "seeks to address their current difficulties and meet their basic human rights". "Such an initiative should be welcomed, not criticized by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom," the statement said. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Monday said that it is "deeply troubled" by the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) "given the religion criterion in the bill". Calling the bill dangerous turn in wrong direction, the commission said if the CAB passes in both houses of Parliament, the US government "should consider sanctions against the Home Minister Amit Shah and other principal leadership."

We regret the inaccurate and unwarranted comments made by USCIRF on #CAB. They have chosen to be guided by their prejudices and biases on a matter on which they have little knowledge and no locus standi.

Read our full statement below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/BLajy03MtZ — Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) December 10, 2019

The US Commission said that the CAB "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". However, replying to the comments, India in a statement said that "such an initiative should be welcomed, not criticized by those who are genuinely committed to religious freedom. MEA Kumar, during a press conference, also said that  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". He clarified that neither the CAB nor the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process seeks to strip citizenship from any Indian citizen of any faith, and added that suggestions to that effect are motivated and unjustified. "Every nation, including the United States, has the right to enumerate and validate its citizenry, and to exercise this prerogative through various policies," he said. "The position articulated by USCIRF is 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," the statement made by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA - India) added. The reaction by US Commission came after the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there, a little past midnight on Monday.