 "CAA does not deprive citizenship; India does not need sermons: VP Dhankhar")
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar cautioned against false narratives and misinformation surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Friday. He clarified that the CAA does not seek to deprive any Indian citizen of their citizenship and does not exclude anyone from applying for Indian citizenship while addressing the 2023 Batch IAS Officer Trainees at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He asserted that India did not require "sermons" from anyone regarding equality, as it has always been ingrained in the nation's ethos.
The VP said, “CAA does not deprive anyone of their citizenship! How can this reprieve, healing touch to those persecuted in our neighbourhood on account of their religious commitment be discriminatory?”
Emphasising that the CAA applies to those who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, VP Dhankhar dismissed notions of it inviting an influx. He said, “We have to neutralise these narratives. These emanate not out of ignorance, but out of a strategy to run down our nation."
VP Dhankhar highlighted India's achievements in promoting gender equality, citing the presence of a woman Prime Minister before the UK and a robust judicial system that has included women judges for years.
"Some countries are yet to have a woman president, while we had a woman Prime Minister before even the UK had one. The Supreme Court in other countries completed 200 years without a woman judge, but we have... I don't think we need lessons from anyone about the rule of law, about our robust judicial system or about methods to alleviate poverty. We can't allow others to calibrate us because they neither have the resources nor knowledge or understanding of how this country works," he said.
VP Dhankhar highlighted the challenge posed to democracy by misinformation and called for exposing individuals who seek to monetise ignorance. He criticised the notion of some considering themselves immune to the legal process, emphasising the importance of equality before the law.
Also Read
“Democratic values and essence are deepening as equality before the law is being enforced in an exemplary manner and corruption is no longer a trading commodity. Earlier, this was the only mechanism for passage to a contract, recruitment, or opportunity,” he said.
Criticism of CAA
The CAA received significant backlash and criticism upon its notification on March 11, nearly four years after it was introduced. The law seeks to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered the country before 2014.
Critics argue that the rules are unconstitutional and discriminatory, undermining the secular principles of citizenship.
Last month, the US expressed concerns about the implementation of the CAA, emphasising the importance of religious freedom and equal treatment under the law. However, India's External Affairs Ministry reiterated the country's commitment to religious freedom and dismissed concerns about the treatment of minority communities, calling them "misplaced" and "unwarranted".