"Human rights not based on religion": People's Conference chief terms CAA "discriminative"

The CAA rules, notified by the Narendra Modi government on March 11 and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants - including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians - who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.

Dubbing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act implemented by the central government recently as 'discriminatory' in nature, Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference chief Sajad Lone on Thursday took a dig at the Centre, saying that human rights are not based on religion. "I think that CAA is discriminative. I believe that human rights are based on human beings, not on religion. I don't think that persecution should be defined by any religion, it should be defined by persecution," Lone said while speaking to the reporters here.

The CAA rules, notified by the Narendra Modi government on March 11 and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants - including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians - who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014. Under the Citizenship Act of 1955, Indian citizenship by registration or naturalization is granted to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan in nine states such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra.

Speaking about the alleged cracks in the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, which the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference was once a member of, Lone said the alliance was not about people but "their own relevance". "We have come out of the alliance (PAGD) as it is not for people; it is just to empower and make themselves look relevant," he added. (ANI)