The Islamist organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI) that has in the past been embroiled in several cases of Islamic extremism and had hosted controversial former Vice President of India Hamid Ansari, has issued a press note opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill passed by the Modi government that aims to give citizenship to persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic nations such as Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians. Interestingly, in their press note, the PFI seems to have also given up India’s right on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
The PFI termed the Citizenship Amendment Bill ‘unconstitutional’, ‘partisan’ and ‘controversial’. While saying that CAB paves way for Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Jains from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, it says that the BJP government has shown its ‘communal colours’ by leaving out Muslims from the list. Further, the press release says that the BJP government’s claim that persecuted minorities are to be given citizenship doesn’t hold water since the government has refused to give citizenship to Rohingya Muslims.
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The PFI press release says that the government has gone against various articles of the constitution though it forgets to take into account that this bill is for granting citizenship to refugees and doesn’t pertain to existing citizens of India.
In their press release, the PFI “demands” that the Union Cabinet recalls the decision to table the Bill in the Parliament and it also calls upon the secular and democratic forces from civil society to come out against the proposed amendment which is “against the basic tenet of our constitution’.
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Interestingly, in their press release, the PFI seems to have given away Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to Pakistan.
In the statement, while advocating for India to give citizenship to Rohingya Muslims, PFI says that India doesn’t share a border with Afghanistan but does with Myanmar. By making this statement, PFI essentially gave up India’s right on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
If one looks at the current map of India even after Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh were declared as Union Territories, India does share a border with Afghanistan since Gilgit Baltistan is a part of India.
In this map, one can clearly see that the top part of Ladakh Union Territory includes Gilgit Baltistan which is illegally occupied by Pakistan and shares a border with India.
To get a clearer picture, even if we look at the map before the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories, India did share a border with Afghanistan and that fact doesn’t change simply because Pakistan has occupied that land illegally.
One can see that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan and since India has always maintained that PoK is Indian territory illegally occupied by Pakistan, by default, India shares a border with Afghanistan.
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The Islamist organisation in its press release seems to have not only fear-mongered about Citizenship Amendment Bill and batted for Rohingya Muslims who are a security threat for India but also toed the Pakistan line by claiming that India has no right over PoK.
Update: After the OpIndia report, PFI has deleted the tweet where they shared this press note. They have also emailed all concerned that they have retracted their previous press release.
In their latest press release, they have retracted the sentence they had mentioned earlier about India not sharing a border with Afghanistan thereby the Islamist organisation recognising the territorial integrity of India.
In their latest press release as emailed by PFI, they have removed the reference of India not sharing a border with Afghanistan.
In their earlier press note, by making this statement, PFI had essentially declared that they do not believe that Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is a part of India.
