CAA misunderstood: Indian foreign secretary

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla today said India's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has been misunderstood in many ways, adding that it was undertaken on "humanitarian grounds". 

"This is a proactive legislation that has been undertaken on humanitarian grounds. In other words, the people who were refugees or faced political persecution and fled to India within a cut off time were allowed fast-track citizenship," Shringla said.

The Indian foreign secretary, who arrived in Dhaka on a two-day visit in the morning, was speaking at a seminar titled "Bangladesh and India: A promising future" at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

At the seminar, Shringla said there are thousands of people currently in India who are homeless and stateless. They will be allowed to apply for citizenship on a fast track basis. That means they will get citizenship in five years instead of 10.

"That does not mean in any way that other people will not be benefited by the act. India has a normal process of application for citizenship," he said, adding that about 5,000 nationals from Pakistan were granted citizenship in the last 10 years.

Shringla said CAA is not targeted against any religion, but it is for those who faced persecution.

He also said minorities in Bangladesh under the current government are well taken care of, as the country has a secular constitution and laws are enacted accordingly.

Explaining about those who had fled to India from Bangladesh, he said the religious persecution that India talked about are those that took place in the post-1975 period, when there was no spirit of secularity in the constitution of Bangladesh.

Dr Gowher Rizvi, foreign affairs advisor to the prime minister, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das and BIISS Chairman Fazlul Karim also spoke on the occasion.

The programme was organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh.

Upon his arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Shringla was received by his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Bin Momen.