india

Updated: Sep 02, 2020 00:23 IST

Ahead of a vote on a resolution in the European Union parliament against the new citizenship law, India called on the MEPs to engage with the government on CAA.

Earlier in the day, the two largest groups of MEPs strongly criticised the citizenship law for its negative consequences for India’s internal stability and potential for creating a “statelessness crisis”.

“We hope the sponsors and supporters of the draft will engage with us to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before they proceed further,” official sources said reacting to the MEPs stand.

The officials quoted above also said the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures.

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The draft resolution in EU parliament comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expected visit to Brussels in March for the India-EU Summit.

The draft resolutions were all tabled on January 22 as part of the procedures to wind up the debate on the European Commission’s vice president’s statement on the CAA and are expected to be taken up for debate during a plenary session on January 29. There will also be a vote on the issue on January 30, according to the European Parliament.

The officials also said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is a matter entirely internal to India and the law was adopted through democratic means after a public debate in both houses of the Parliament.

The European People’s Party (EPP) Group, a centre-right group that is the largest with 182 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), said the CAA “is selective and excludes Muslims from provisions provided to other religious groups” and expressed concern about the “wide range of negative consequences that it might have for India’s international image and internal stability”.

The new citizenship law fast tracks the process for granting citizenship to members of non-Muslim persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.