India 'categorically' rejects Pakistan resolution on Citizenship Amendment Act
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Addressing a press conference in Delhi, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson' Raveesh Kumar said, that the resolution makes 'references to matters that are entirely the internal affairs of India.'
India on Tuesday "categorically" rejected a resolution adopted by Pakistan National Assembly against recently enacted Citizenship Act in the country.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, External Affairs Ministry's official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, the resolution makes "references to matters that are entirely the internal affairs of India."
"The Resolution adopted by Pakistan’s National Assembly yesterday (on Citizenship Amendment Act) makes references to matters that are entirely the internal affairs of India. We categorically reject the Resolution," Kumar said.
On Monday, Pakistan National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning the Indian Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. The resolution claimed that it is "discriminated" and enacted to "suppress" the minorities in the country.
The resolution moved by Pakistan's Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, also called upon the international community including the United Nations, Human Rights Council to urge India to revoke it.
"The Resolution is a poorly disguised effort to divert attention from Pakistan’s appalling treatment and persecution of its own religious minorities," said Kumar, adding, "The demographics of these minorities, whether Hindu, Christian, Sikh or other faiths, in Pakistan, speak for themselves."
"It's a thinly-veiled attempt by Pakistan to further its false narrative on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. It seeks to provide justification for Pakistan’s unrelenting support for cross-border terrorist activities in India. We're confident that such attempts will fail," Kumar also said.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed from Parliament earlier this week and became an Act with Presidential assent on November 12.
The legislation provides Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
The External Affairs Ministry also said that it was "laughable" that the National Assembly that has itself passed discriminatory legislation against religious minorities, should point fingers at others.
"We call upon Pakistan to engage in serious self-introspection rather than to falsely accuse others of what they themselves are guilty of," the statement said.
(With inputs from agencies)