UN Secretary-General Fears CAA will Leave Indian Muslims “Stateless”

Guwahati, February 20, 2020:

Expressing concern over the Indian Muslims, the Secretary-General to the United Nations, Antonio Guterres said that there might be a risk of millions of Muslims becoming stateless due to the “divisive” Citizenship Amendment Act.

Antonio Guterres said this during his visit to Pakistan on Wednesday. He further said that he is personally concerned about the alleged discrimination on the minorities of India.

“All the reports, including two by the UN High Commissioner, in the international media, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and recent fact-finding reports on Kashmir released in New Delhi, regarding torture, sexual abuse and incarceration of children as young as seven by the Indian military”, played a key role in “clarifying exactly what is happening” in Kashmir and “it is essential that these reports are taken seriously,” he was further quoted as saying,

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The top UN official made this statement ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India.

It may be mentioned here that massive protests erupted across the country after the CAB’s (Citizenship Amendment Bill) passage in the Rajya Sabha and forced implementation of the CAA. Several deaths were reported from different parts of the country. Internet shutdowns became prominent to quell the protests. Curfews were also imposed.

Widespread agitation is still demanding the repeal of CAA. In Assam, several organisations, students and learned have been continuing their protest against the CAA as it poses a threat to its linguistic and cultural identity.

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While Assam fights for its identity, the rest of the country is fighting against CAA based on the ‘unconstitutional’ and discriminatory nature. Opposition and critics opine that the exclusion of Muslims has made CAA unconstitutional. Some others view it as CAA, along with other citizenship exercises such as the nationwide National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) and National Population Register (NPR), clubbed together would facilitate the expulsion of Muslims from the country.

Around 100 bureaucrats had also written an open letter to the people of India to urge the Government to reconsider the implementation and called it “unnecessary” exercise.

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