BRUSSELS: The European Parliament on Thursday voted to delay a vote on a resolution against India's controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), angering many members of European Parliament (MEPs) who had originally brought the motion.
The MEPs condemned New Delhi, accusing it of using Indian diplomatic clout and the European Union's business interests to influence the move to delay the vote. By doing so, the EU has chosen business interests over human rights, they said.
"European Parliament should not surrender before Indian power," said MEP Scott Ainslie.
In what is being considered a major step towards fascism, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has systematically introduced laws in India aimed at stripping off the citizenship of many minorities, particularity Muslim communities.
India exerted an enormous amount of diplomatic pressure on the European Parliament and the EU, threatening them with the cancellation of Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to the EU — set for February 17 — if the vote went ahead.
India pressurised the EU into letting Jaishankar explain and justify the CAA and other recent legislation, despite many MEPs seeing the move as a contradiction of the UN's Charter of Human Rights and a gross violation of the 1950 UN resolution.
Nordic Green Left MEP Idoia Villanueva Ruiz 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 — all conflicted with democratic values and violated international law. The MEP said Modi government’s repression of Kashmir was tantamount to fascism and should be condemned. Most right-wing and far-right European parties supported India’s official stance on the CAA, stressing that it would protect persecuted refugees from neighbouring countries. Right-wing MEPs, including Italian and Polish ones, were at the forefront to speak against the resolution. Two Indian-origin MEPs from the UK — Liberal Dinesh Dhamja and Socialist-Democrat Neena Gill — praised India for its democratic credentials, towing Modi’s line on the controversial legislation in India.
He said topic of agricultural tax should not be taboo, and assembly members should share views on matter
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“Yes, our preparations are complete and we will not return home till our demands are fulfilled,” said Gandapur
She said, “Good treatment, medicines, and tests are the rights of those living in villages too"
CEO PIA Amir Hayat and Additional Secretary, Religious Affairs Syed Attaur Rehman signed agreement
