By NAZISH HUSSAIN, TwoCircles.net
City of Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota in the USA, has passed a resolution declaring Bhartiya Janta Party led Indian government as Islamophobic.
The resolution opposes India’s National Registry of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act.
Saint Paul city became the fourth city to pass the Resolution. The resolution was passed with a 5-0 vote.
“The City Council opposes the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India.” The City Council found the policies of these laws to be “discriminatory to Muslims, oppressed castes, women, indigenous peoples known as Adivasi, and the LGBTQ community, and any other efforts that render vulnerable populations anywhere to become stateless, scapegoated, and targeted for discrimination, violence, and the abrogation of human rights that are universal to one and all.”
It said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is dominated by the exclusionary ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). RSS promotes discrimination against Muslims.
It stated that the Citizenship Amended Act passed on 9 December 2019 under the leadership of BJP government and Prime Minister Modi discriminates against Muslims. It said the Act which claims to help refugees fleeing religious persecution from neighbouring countries discriminates against millions of Muslims who have come to India to flee wars in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other Muslim countries.
The Saint Paul City Council intends to convey dissent against President Trump and the United States for failure to censure the Indian government for not protecting all Indian residents equally. The City Council believes it is the duty of ordinary people to oppose the dangerous rise of racist, nationalist, and authoritarian leaders around the world and believes that the Islamophobic authoritarianism of the Indian government in nuclear-armed India is of grave concern, not only to the 200 million Muslims in India, and to oppressed castes, women, indigenous, and LGBTQ people in India, but also to Saint Paul’s South Asian immigrant community and to democratic government in the United States and around the world.
The Indian American Muslim Council and The Council on American-Islamic Relations and hundreds of activists and organizers have spoken out against the CAA and NRC. The Saint Paul City Council believes that India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens are inconsistent with the democratic values of the City of Saint Paul, and these Indian laws are threats to Saint Paul’s South Asian communities of all castes and religions. The novel coronavirus is galvanizing the bigotry and violence against religious minorities in India.
The economic relationship including trade, manufacturing, and technical support between the US and India is threatened by the instability of civil unrest due to the Indian government’s exclusionary Ideology. Saint Paul’s business, residents and economy could be impacted by the continued escalating unrest in India caused by the CAA and NRC laws.
“The Saint Paul City Council reaffirms Saint Paul as a welcoming city and expresses solidarity with Saint Paul’s South Asian community regardless of religion and caste. Saint Paul City Council affirms that the integrity of the trade relationship between the Twin Cities and India must be founded continue to be based upon the democratic rights of our nation’s peoples, the rule of law and freedom of religion.