0
0
RESPONSE TO USCIRF PRESS RELEASE ON INDIA’S CITIZENSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL
The recent Press Release from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) (USCIRF, 2019) is based on misinformation. The text of the release runs contrary to several of USCIRF’s own published reports. The Foundation of India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) brings out the clear and undisputed facts of the issue in this response statement, to persuade the organization to reconsider its stance on India’s CAB.
Read the complete Report here.
Support FIIDS by Donating here.
CAB ADDRESSES ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION/REFUGEE CRISIS
The Indian government has long been concerned about reports of persecution of religious minorities in the neighboring Islamic countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. To make room for those religious minorities in its immigration policy India introduced CAB, laying out clearly in its text, an Amendment to Section (2) of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955 (The Week, 2019):
“Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or before the 31st day of December, 2014 …”
In calling out the neighboring Islamic states by name India recognizes implicitly the refugee problem that it has faced consistently from these three countries arising out of religious persecution. Since the number of persecuted religious minorities from the neighboring Muslim countries is high, India, as any free, independent country, has formulated its immigration policy based on events and occurrences across its borders.
India’s stance is not unlike that of the United States, where President Trump expressed that Christian refugees from Syria need to be given preferential treatment (Burke, 2017) over all other religious communities seeking asylum in the United States. To not condemn the United States’ position on preferential treatment of Christian refugees while choosing to take an extreme exception to India’s reasonable stance toward persecuted non-Muslim minorities to the point of recommending sanctions, is to blatantly hold double-standards.
CONCLUSION
CAB is motivated by a few facts. (1) Persecuted minorities particularly Hindu, Sikh and related Indic-origin communities have few places in the world they can call home, the biggest one being India. (2) There are over 50 Muslim majority countries in the world capable of accommodating persecuted Muslim communities. (3) In extending protection to persecuted Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, CAB establishes that its intent is inclusive of non-Hindu (and other Indic) populations.
In terms of accommodating Muslims and their demands, India has given them two separate countries – Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. In this respect the Indian Muslim population has had the highest priority in post-Independent India. The country now seeks to take care of other non-Muslim, neglected communities, particularly those facing persecution in neighboring countries. To condemn these efforts is to imply that non-Muslim lives do not matter. To campaign against India on this issue is to deny the country its sovereign and civilizational right to assert itself. FIIDS hopes that USCIRF reviews its stance in the light of the facts and arguments presented above and works with the Indian government in helping the humanitarian rehabilitation of the said persecuted communities.
