US panel seeks sanctions over Lok Sabha CAB move
PROTESTS Deeply troubled by proposed legislation, says US rights body; New Delhi says it is guided by biases
WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: A US commission that monitors religious freedom across the world has asked the Trump administration to consider sanctions against India’s leadership if a controversial citizenship bill is a p p r o v e d b y Par l i a ment, prompting New Delhi to say the panel is prejudiced and has no locus standi in the matter.
Soon after the Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) 2019 that aims to grant citizenship to religious minorities from three Muslimmajority countries in India’s neighbourhood, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said on Tuesday i t was “deeply troubled” by the development because of the “religion criterion in the bill”.
USCIRF has criticised India in the past on religious freedom, and India’s external affairs ministry said its position is “not surprising given its past record”.
The ministry added it was regrettable the panel “has chosen to be guided only by its prejudices and biases on a matter on which it clearly has little knowledge and no locus standi”.
The influential US House foreign affairs committee too questioned the intent of the bill in a tweet.
“Religious pluralism is central to the foundations of both India and the United States and is one of our core shared values. Any religious test for citizenship undermines this most basic democratic tenet,” it said.
Ahead of the bill’s introduct i on i n t he Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, USCIRF, an independent, bipartisan US federal government commission, said i n a statement: “I f t he CAB passes in both houses of parliament, t he US g o v e r nment should consider s anctions against the Home Minister and other principal leadership.”
The panel added, “The CAB is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction; it runs counter to India’s rich history of secular