KABUL - Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai has lashed out at India’s controversial law called the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA.
The act alleges India’s neighbours -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan -- are the three countries that discriminate against non-Muslim minorities.
In an interview published on Monday, Karzai suggested the act, excluding Muslims and wooing Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis from the three countries for citizenship rights, should apply to everyone equally.
Speaking to The Hindu, the ex-president explained: “We don’t have persecuted minorities in Afghanistan, as the whole country is persecuted. We have long been at war. All religions in Afghanistan, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, have suffered.”
Karzai hoped the sentiment of protecting minorities would be reflected in India, with regard to other Afghans, who are Muslim as well.”
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a key ally of India’s rightwing Hindu nationalist government, has also faulted the new law.
Hasina said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised her that a related new measure called the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would not affect her people.
But the NRC is being enforced in Assam, and could be extended across the country, with a view to sending back illegal Bangladeshi migrants to their country.
“We don’t understand why (the Indian government) did it. It was not necessary,” Hasina told Gulf News in Abu Dhabi where she held high-level meetings. (Pajhwok)