Shaffaq Mohammed, Pakistan-origin Member of European Parliament, is the lead mover of the European Parliament Resolution on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Taking to Twitter, Mohammed has been bombarding media houses and ‘activists’ to take credit for the resolution he has moved out of ‘concerns about the discriminatory nature of the Act”.
.@IndiaToday As the lead mover of the @Europarl_EN Resolution on India’s CAA & NRC laws, I am deeply concerned that CAA is “fundamentally discriminatory in nature” & the impact of NRC on certain groups of residents. I am saddened by the loss of life & violence against protesters pic.twitter.com/UAm39bBKtG
— Shaffaq Mohammed MEP ? (@shaffaqmohd) January 26, 2020
Shaffaq Mohammed was born in Mirpur, Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir and has been an MEP since 2019. It is reported that the proposed resolution, which is expected to be debated on 29th January, is supported by 154 out of 751 members of the European Parliament. The voting for the same will be held on 30th, though it may not really garner support from majority of the members.
As reported by news agency PTI, a total of six resolutions have been tabled by various groups within the European Union (EU). This includes the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) (PPE), Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE), European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), Renew Europe Group (Renew) and European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) Group. The resolutions, reportedly, have also made a reference to the revocation of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian government, however, said that the CAA is an internal matter and said that the EU Parliament should not take actions that call to question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other parts of the country. Clarifying once again that the CAA only speeds up naturalisation procedure for persecuted religious minorities in three neighbouring Islamic countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh), government sources told media houses that the Indian government hopes that the supporters and sponsors of the draft will engage with the Indian officials to get full and accurate assessment of facts before they proceed.
