"Diplomatic Victory" As No EU Parliament Vote On Citizenship Act: Sources

The European Parliament has decided to defer voting on a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act on Thursday, sources in the Union government have said, terming it as a "diplomatic victory" for India.

"Friends of India prevailed over friends of Pakistan in the European Parliament today. Strenuous efforts of outgoing British member Shaffaq Mohammad to have a resolution passed by the European Parliament against India on the penultimate day before Brexit have been defeated," the source said.

"We expect that our perspective in this matter will be understood by all objective and fair-minded members," the source said, adding that the Citizenship Amendment Act is "a matter internal to India" that has been adopted through a democratic process.

The European Parliament was expected to vote on a final joint resolution on the Citizenship Amendment Act, put forward by 560 of its 751 members from five different groups, on the grounds that it is inherently discriminatory against Muslims and violates India's international obligations.

It also warns against "increasing nationalism that has resulted in the fuelling of religious intolerance and discrimination against Muslims".

Besides this, the European Parliament resolution expresses concern over the National Register of Citizens - an exercise aimed at identifying illegal immigrants - marking a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India, thereby creating a largescale statelessness crisis and causing immense human suffering.

The "crackdown by security forces" and restrictions placed on those protesting the amended citizenship law also finds mention in the document.

The move was opposed by India, which maintained that the Citizenship Amendment Act is an "internal matter". "As fellow democracies, the EU Parliament should not take actions that call into question the rights and authority of democratically elected legislatures in other regions of the world," a government source had said when the resolutions were first moved.

Although European Parliament resolutions don't affect the decisions of the European Council or European Commission, the timing of its passage could have been awkward with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to visit Brussels in March for an India-European Union summit.