The European Parliament will discuss the highly controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) today during a plenary session in Brussels, Belgium.
As many as six resolutions drafted by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group in the Parliament is all set to be discussed on the newly enacted legislation put forwarded by 560 MPs out of 751. A vote could also take place on January 30th, 2020 stating that CAA is highly “discriminatory and divisive”.
The resolutions put forward by the EU parliament lawmakers have called on the Indian government to hold peaceful dialogues with the people as CAA“marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India” and repeal the law.
The MPs also expressed concern over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise to identify illegal immigrants to which has the possibility of creating the “largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause human suffering”.
Apart from this, the resolutions have also mentioned the arrest of human rights activists– Akhil Gogoi and Sadaf Jafar.
Meanwhile, the Indian government sources have responded to the resolution as “internal matter”.
On January 27th, 2020, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla wrote to European Parliament President David Maria Sassoli over the resolutions moved against the CAA saying that “the act provides for granting easier citizenship for those who have been subjected to religious persecution” and is “not aimed at taking away citizenship from anybody”.
The Speaker further stated in his letter that the resolution has been passed after due deliberation from both the houses of the parliament.
The European Union, on the other hand, said that from the resolutions and opinions moved in the EU Parliament don’t reflect the official position of the 28-member political and economic union.
Photo Credit: The Economic Times
