Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that he would have welcomed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) if Muslims were not excluded from seeking citizenship under the law. Tharoor, who was part of the Congress party’s Manifesto Committee said that if the INDI Alliance government comes to power, the provision excluding Muslims will be withdrawn.
“I consider this morally and Constitutionally wrong… I’m fully in support of the decision of the Indian Union Muslim League to go to the Supreme Court against this. And I must say, if the INDIA alliance and the Congress party come to power, we will withdraw this provision of the law beyond any shadow of a doubt. It’s going to be in our manifesto. We will not support introducing religion into our citizenship and into our nation’s life,” Tharoor said.
“Under the CAA, there would be fast-track citizenship for those who’ve been seeking refuge from neighbouring countries. That’s a very good principle. Those who are fleeing the neighbouring countries, who fear persecution there on any grounds, should be given asylum in our country. And I would have welcomed this law. But the moment you say people of one religion are excluded, what does that mean? You are basically leaving out people who may also desire to become Indian because of persecution… What about people who have come from Pakistan who may have been born Muslim but who have rejected that country and who have been persecuted in that country?” he added.
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His remarks came a day after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs notified rules for the implementation of the CAA. The controversial law passed by Parliament in December 2019 seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Christians — but not Muslims — who migrated to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014.
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