Seattle: The Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution against India’s recently-enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). Seattle City Council is one of the most powerful city councils in the US.
Expressing solidarity with the city’s South Asian community regardless of religion and caste, and calling the moves discriminatory, the Council passed the resolution which “resolves that the Seattle City Council opposes the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India, and finds these policies to be discriminatory to Muslims, oppressed castes, women, indigenous, and LGBT people”.
The resolution was introduced by Indian American City Council member Kshama Sawant. It urges the Parliament of India to uphold the Indian Constitution by repealing the CAA, and to stop the National Register of Citizens, and take steps towards helping refugees by ratifying various UN treaties on refugees.
Hindustan Times quoted Ahsan Khan, president of Indian American Muslim Council as saying, “Seattle City’s decision to condemn CAA should be a message to all who wish to undermine pluralism and religious freedom. They cannot peddle in hate and bigotry, and expect to have international acceptability at the same time.”