Mega diplomatic win for India: EU Parliament defers anti-CAA resolution voting; Pak foiled

In a major diplomatic coup for India, the European Parliament on Wednesday decided to defer voting on the joint resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act until March 2020. Michael Gahler, a member of the European People’s Party introduced the proposal to delay the vote in the 751-member House. Out of the 483 MEPs present, an overwhelming 271 members voted to delay the vote. On the other hand, 199 MEPs didn’t want the vote to be postponed and 13 others abstained.  

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Pakistan lobby's attempt fails

As per government sources, the efforts of the Pakistan lobby were comprehensively defeated. Outgoing British MEP Shaffaq Mohammad had played a pivotal role in trying to get the resolutions passed which painted the country in a negative light. Sources maintained that the CAA was an integral matter of India and asserted that the legislation was adopted after a due democratic process. According to sources, the government was confident that its concerns would be understood by all “objective” and “fair-minded” MEPs.  

Critical resolutions

All the initial 6 EU Parliament resolutions were scathing of the CAA and commented on the negative impact after implementing the National Register of Citizens. However, the most critical resolution was mooted by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest political group in the European Parliament. It contended that the CAA had the potential to “create the largest statelessness crisis in the world”.  

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PM's visit to Brussels

The delay in the voting assumes significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Brussels for the India-EU summit on March 13. The EU is India’s largest trading partner with 92 billion euros of trade in goods in 2018. This accounts for 12.9% of the total quantum of Indian trade. The EU is also a key market for Indian exports. So far, the Ministry of External Affairs has officially refused to comment on the anti-CAA resolution.  

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What is the CAA?

he CAA seeks to provide citizenship to the minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This will be applicable to the members of these communities having arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014. Moreover, they will not be considered as illegal migrants.

Read: Digvijaya Singh Questions Centre On Need For CAA, Cites Citizenship Granted To Adnan Sami