S Jaishankar reacts to US envoy’s CAA remark

New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday reacted to US Ambassador Eric Garcetti’s remark on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), saying he questions the country’s understanding of India’s history. Justifying the law, which fast-tracks Indian citizenship for persecuted non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the minister said India has the obligation to those “who were let down at the time of Partition”.

Days after the Centre notified the rules for the law, the US on Thursday said that it is concerned about the notification of CAA in India and is closely monitoring its implementation. A day later, Garcetti, in response to a question on CAA during a panel discussion, said one cannot give up on principles, “no matter how close you are as friends”.

S Jaishankar, reacting to the comments from “many parts of the world”, said these remarks discount the Partition of India.

“Look, I am not questioning the imperfections or otherwise of their democracy or their principles or lack of it. I am questioning their understanding of our history. If you hear comments from many parts of the world, it is as if the Partition of India never happened, there were no consequential problems which the CAA is supposed to address,” Jaishankar said at the India Today Conclave.

In a curt reply, S Jaishankar said his government has principles too.

“So, if you take a problem and remove all the historical context from it, sanitise it and make it into a political correctness argument, and say, ‘I have principles and don’t you have principles’, I have principles too, and one of them is obligation to people who were let down at the time of Partition,” he added.

To buttress his point, S Jaishankar listed many examples when the citizenship of some religious groups were fast-tracked.

S Jaishankar said he has a problem when people don’t hold up a mirror to their own policies.

He cited the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which was about Jews from the Soviet Union, the Lautenberg Amendment, Specter Amendment and “fast-tracking of Hungarians after the Hungarian revolution, fast-tracking of Cubans in the 1960s”.

“So, if you were to ask me, have other countries, other democracies, fast-tracked on the basis of ethnicity, faith, social attributes, I can give you any number of examples,” the minister added.

S Jaishankar said that during the Partition, the leadership of India had promised to the minorities in Pakistan that they were welcome to the country.

“The leadership of this country has promised to these minorities that if you have a problem, you are welcome to come to India. The leadership thereafter didn’t deliver on the promise,” he added.