‘Questioning Their Understanding Of Our History’: Jaishankar Rejects White House's CAA Criticism

Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said he questioned the US’ understanding of India’s history while rejecting their criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

“I am not questioning the imperfections of their democracy, their principles or lack of it. I am questioning their understanding of our history. If you hear the comments from many parts of the world, it is as if the Partition of India never happened. And there were no consequential problems which the CAA is supposed to address,” Jaishankar said, stating the remarks were made without a proper understanding of the historical context behind the law.

He said the law was brought to address problems created during the Partition of India.

Referring to the US Ambassador Eric Garcetti’s comment that “principles of freedom and equality” are prime in a democracy, Jaishankar told the India Today Conclave: “You take out a problem and remove all the historical contexts, sanitise it and make it into a politically correct argument, and say ‘oh, I have principles and don’t you have principles’”.

Garcetti, who also spoke at the India Today Conclave said the US “can’t give up on principles” and principles of religious freedom and equality are a cornerstone of democracy.

He said the US was concerned about the CAA and was closely monitoring the implementation of the law.

“I have principles too, and one of my principles is an obligation to people who were let down at the time of partition. (They are not) holding up a mirror to their policies,” Jaishankar said, referring to the Jackson–Vanik amendment, Lautenberg Amendment, Spector Amendment and so on that fast-tracked citizenship for ethnic minorities like Jews and Christians.

“If you ask me if other countries fast-tracked citizenship based on ethnicity, faith, or social attributes, I can give you any number of examples. (When something of a) “very major scale” (happens), it is “not possible to deal with all the consequences right then and there,” he said.

The central government announced the implementation of the contentious Citizenship Act for granting citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who reached here before December 31, 2014 on Tuesday.