WEB DESK
In a major respite for India, Voting in European Parliament on a resolution that makes use of scathing language against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has been postponed until the Parliament’s Plenary session in March.
“Following a decision by MEPs at the opening of today’s Plenary session in Brussels, the vote on the resolution on India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 has been postponed to the March session,” said a statement from the European Parliament.
The reason behind the postponement of the vote is unconfirmed but will come as a boost to the Indian government’s efforts against such a motion being voted on by the European Parliament.
Government sources hailed it as “a diplomatic victory”, saying friends of India prevailed over those of Pakistan in the European Parliament.
“Strenuous efforts of outgoing British MEP Shaffaq Mohammad to have a resolution passed by the European Parliament against India on the penultimate day before Brexit were defeated,” a source said.
India reached out to almost all countries of the powerful block, trying to persuade them against going ahead with the resolution against the CAA.
Two weeks after Josep Borrell, the High Representative of European Union for Foreign Affairs, visited India for the government-backed ‘Raisina Dialogue’ event here, the European Parliament will debate and vote on a resolution that makes use of scathing language against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
A draft of the final resolution, which combines the six previous resolution by several parties, has been placed on the final agenda for debate at the Plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday. The draft says it “deeply regrets the adoption and implementation of the CAA, which is discriminatory in nature and dangerously divisive”.
It asks the Indian government to pay heed to the citizens’ petitions and also joins the dots between the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to drive home the point.
Sources said the European lawmakers agreed to delay the voting to get a direct perspective from about the CAA from External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who is scheduled to visit Brussels to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in mid-March.
The EU lawmakers also wanted to wait for judicial review of the contentious law by India’s Supreme Court.
The draft of the joint motion for resolution points out that there has been a “brutal crackdown” on “peaceful protesters” and highlights BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh as an example. The paragraph says: “Indian authorities have also used internet shutdown, curfews and limits on public transportation to prevent peaceful protesters in addition to reports of hundreds of protesters being beaten, shot, and tortured, in particular in Uttar Pradesh.”
At least four speakers on the list of parliamentarians speaking on the resolution on CAA were taken to Kashmir last October by the government. They are France’s Thierry Mariana, Poland’s Ryszard Czarnecki, France’s France Jamet, and Germany’s Bernard Zimniok.
The government expressed its displeasure over these developments and the EU Ambassador to India, Ugo Astuto, was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs for a meeting. Government sources said they hoped the sponsors and supporters of the resolutions will engage with India to get a full and accurate assessment of the facts before proceeding further.