Ultra Hindu outfit and an RSS affiliate VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) on Wednesday urged the Central government to reconsider its decision to grant non-Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Afghan national permission to enter India in the wake of the occupation of Afghanistan by Taliban extremist forces, amid fears of persecution by them.
“Our law is very clear on this issue. As per the Citizenship [Amendment] Act, 2019 passed by the Parliament on 11 December 2019 Indian citizenship will be granted only to persecuted religious minorities [non-Muslims] such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh,” the VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal speaking to The Statesman said here.
Both the BJP, also an affiliate of RSS, and VHP however don’t consider persecuted minority Muslim communities such as Ahmadis [ a sect originally from Punjab under British rule] and Hazaras [Persian speaking ethnic group from Afghanistan] and Rohingiyyas [from Bangladesh and Burma] residing in Muslim majority Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan as being eligible for Indian citizenship.
‘We strongly opposed the entry of non-Hindus [those not covered by the Citizenship [Amendment] Act, 2019] into India. Accordingly, we urge both the Central government as well as UNHRC to take appropriate steps to ensure that such Afghan nationals who have already entered India be identified and deported back to Afghanistan,’ the VHP leader said here.