The resolution proposed by the Chicago City Council and introduced by Maria Hadden, a council member and alderperson for the city’s 49th ward, classifies CAA passed in December 2019 by the BJP-led Indian government as “discriminatory because it uses religion-based criteria to grant citizenship.”
By Staff Reporter, TwoCircles.net
Chicago: On Tuesday, US-based advocacy organization, Hindus for Human Rights (HHR) expressed its support to the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) resolution proposed by the Chicago City Council. The Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in the Illinois state of United States.
The resolution R2020-583 proposed by the Chicago City Council and introduced by Maria Hadden, a council member and alderperson for the city’s 49th ward, classifies CAA passed in December 2019 by the BJP-led Indian government as “discriminatory because it uses religion-based criteria to grant citizenship.”
HHR, whose stated goal is to promote the ideals of multi-religious pluralism in the United States and South Asia, has expressed its support through a letter its co-founder Raju Rajagopal wrote to the Alderperson of Chicago City Council urging them to vote ‘Yes’ on the resolution and speak for your its Muslim constituents. The resolution to due for voting on Wednesday, March 24.
“Please speak up for the World’s largest democracy, which is slipping rapidly into a majoritarian state where non-Hindus would become second-class citizens,” Rajagopal wrote.
Referring to the former President Trump’s ‘Muslim Ban’ as fundamentally discriminatory and unconstitutional that was opposed across the US, Rajagopal drew its parallel with the Indian citizenship law and called “it infinitely worse.”
“It (CAA) applies a religious litmus test to its own residents, not just to people coming into the country. To wit, if you are an undocumented Hindu, you are IN; but if you are an undocumented Muslim, you are OUT. This runs counter to India’s secular constitution and puts it on a dangerous path,” Rajagopal wrote.
Rajagopal wrote that “the Indian state operates several detention camps and is planning many more to intern those deemed stateless, once the CAA is applied to the proposed National Population Register (NPR).
“As per the new laws, only Muslims would be destined to such camps, with the prospect of living out the rest of their lives and dying in such camps (as is already happening in the State of Assam),” he said.
Rajagopal said that one of the narratives being pushed hard by the Indian state is that the CAA is merely a humanitarian law to allow persecuted Hindu minorities from neighboring states to seek asylum in India. “If that were truly the primary intent, we must ask how it is that millions of undocumented Hindus in the state of Assam — who claim that they are long term residents of India – are also being told that CAA is their path to citizenship?,” he asked.
He said that “Indian state’s claim that NPR has nothing to do with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a fraudulent claim,” adding, “this has been proven by their own words in the parliament and elsewhere.”
Rajagopal said that events in India affects Indian Muslims residing in the United States and especially in Chicago, which he called as “one of the most diverse places in the US and home to hundreds of thousands of Muslims hailing from India.”
“What’s happening in India is deeply personal to them (Indian Muslims) and affects their families and friends,” he said.
Appealing to the Chicago City Council Alderperson that there are “many Indian Muslims in your own constituency,” Rajagopal urged the Alderperson to “speak up in solidarity with them.”
Rajagopal expressed concern with reports in the last few years of Muslims in India being lynched on rumors of storing beef, bans on inter-faith weddings, police brutality against Muslims protesters, anti-conversion laws, etc. “Genocide Watch is warning us of a potential for a genocide in some parts of India,” he said.
Rajagopal said that “it would be unconscionable for us to ignore such warnings and accept the narratives of certain Hindu groups that the Chicago India Resolution ‘puts India in a bad light’! After all, they are not the ones being affected by the horrific events in India.”
However, the proposed resolution has run into roadblocks, as the “resolution is gutted in negotiations so as to appease the Consulate of India in Chicago and other defenders of Modi and the BJP,” as one writer wrote in Chicago Sun Times.
Maria Hadden, who introduced the resolution has said that “Indian govt was allowed too much input” and hinted at interference from the Indian Consulate in Chicago.
Calling it a watered-down resolution, the writer further writes, “the resolution now consists of a single paragraph lifted from President Joe Biden’s website and a portion of a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.”
The edited resolution has left out the Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s description of undocumented Muslim immigrants as “termites” and “infiltrators.”
The revised resolution ‘urges India to restore the rights of people living in Muslim-majority Kashmir,’ and condemn “religiously motivated violence and prosecute those who attack protesters and journalists. “
Despite the opposition by the Consulate of India in Chicago, the resolution has found many supporters in the Indian American community in the US and from US Congressmen.
Expressing his support to the resolution, Congressmen Chuy Garcia wrote on Twitter, “Proud to support the #ChicagoIndiaResolution honoring India’s independence & condemning attacks on its ethnic & religious minorities, incl. Muslims. Chicago is a sanctuary city that aspires to be inclusive & this reflects our commitment to human rights.”
Congresswoman Marie Newman also joined Garcia in supporting the resolution, and took to Twitter writing, “I applaud the Indian-American community here in Chicago working to pass the #ChicagoIndiaResolution. We MUST condemn violence and discrimination against Muslims and ethnic minorities in India. This resolution reflects who we are as a city and people.”