Duty to people disillusioned during Partition: Minister defends CAA

New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday boldly responded to criticism of the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and questioned the global understanding of historical events, adding that the government had an obligation to the people who were disappointed at the time of Partition.

“I’m not questioning their democracy, their principles or the lack of democratic imperfection or otherwise. I’m questioning their understanding of our history. If you hear many comments from many parts of the world, it’s like the partition of India It has never happened. And there are no follow-up issues that the Civil Aviation Authority should address,” he said.

“If you take an issue, remove all historical context from it, sanitize it, and turn it into an argument for political correctness and say, I have principles and you have no principles. I also have principles, one of my principles. One is the obligation to those who were disappointed at the time of partition,” he added.

The minister staunchly defended the implementation of the CAA and lashed out at critics for reassessing his policies before accusing India of launching policies based on certain beliefs.

Jaishankar highlighted similar examples, including the ghost amendment for specific ethnic groups in Vietnam, fast-track citizenship for Hungarians after the Hungarian revolution and Cubans in the 1960s.

“I also have a problem when people don’t follow their own policies. So if you say, you choose some beliefs over others. I’ll give you some other examples. Have you heard of that?” Jackson -The Vanik Amendment is about Jews from the Soviet Union. Why only Jews you might ask. In 1999 the Soviet Union had the Lautenberg Amendment regarding Christians and Jews,” he said.

“There was a ghost amendment, it was about a law about a specific race from Vietnam who could get citizenship fast because they fought alongside the Americans. After the Hungarian revolution, there was fast track for Hungarians. Hence, Fast Track’s Cubans in the 1960s. If you ask me, are other countries, other democracies, developing rapidly based on race, creed and social attributes,” he added.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Rules 2024 enables persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for grant of Indian citizenship and the application has to be submitted in a completely online mode for which the government has provided a portal.

On March 11, the Center notified the implementation details of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees seeking asylum in India before December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution against six minority communities in the three neighboring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh identity.

The CAA removes legal barriers to rehabilitation and citizenship and provides a dignified life for refugees who have “suffered for decades.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)