SA Tamils backtrack on criticism for India’s new racial legislation

THE South African Tamil Federation (SATF), which pledged to support India’s Muslim community after the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed last month, has made a U-turn.

On December 12, the Indian government passed a law that granted citizenship to religious minorities from neighbouring countries.

The citizenship law, which was an amendment to a 1955 legislation, provides Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But the amendment made no reference to, and excluded, the Muslim community.

After releasing a statement in support of India’s Muslim community, the SATF backtracked.

“As the SATF is directed by our affiliates, we have retracted our statement and therefore the SATF was mandated to distance itself from this issue in its entirety,” read a statement.

No further explanation was provided.

Other South African organisations have rejected the law.

Yusuf Patel, the secretary-general of the United Ulama Council of South Africa, said the Indian government had signalled that Muslim migrants were not welcome in India.

“The unrest has spread to more than a dozen cities and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded by deploying troops, enacting a curfew and shutting down the internet.

“India has 201-million Muslims, making it home to the world’s second-largest Muslim population after Indonesia.

“Muslims have become underdogs and social lepers in their own country.”

Patel said the law incited Islamophobia.

Ibrahim Vawda, of the Media Review Network, said Modi’s actions were the opposite to Gandhi’s doctrine of compassion and non-aggression.

The act has been met with widespread protests in India.

Several protesters, including university students, gathered at India Gate in New Delhi on January 1 to oppose the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

Protesters believe the cluster of laws will target and disenfranchise the poor, minorities and other deprived sections of Indian society.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s union minister, said there was no escape from the implementation of the law.

“All governments talking about not implementing the law need to know that once they have taken the oath they are bound by the constitution.”

The government said the law would help minorities in the three Muslim-dominated neighbouring countries – Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – to gain Indian citizenship if they fled their countries because of religious persecution and sought a safe haven in India.

But the country’s opposition parties said this was discriminatory towards Muslims and violated the secular essence of India’s constitution.

At the weekend, Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, said a rally against the CAA would be organised in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on January 10.

Owaisi called for peaceful protests to continue against the CAA, NRC and NPR.

He said the protests should continue for another four to five months, so that the authorities knew people had woken up.

Fifty-nine petitions have been filed in the country’s supreme court challenging the constitutional validity of the law.

The court is scheduled to begin hearing the matter on January 22. | Additional reporting IANS