The self-styled intelligentsia and opposition parties in India and elsewhere who have accused the Modi government of passing the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA to establish a 'Hindu Rashtra' may have to eat their words.
In striking similarity to the Modi-led NDA's legislative initiative, the United States federal government in 1989 resolved to allow Jews and 'other religious minorities' from the former Soviet Union to resettle in the US as refugees. The Lautenberg Amendment, much like the CAA today, was ratified by the US Congress. The Lautenberg Amendment was eventually extended to include 'persecuted minorities' from Iran in 2004 through the Specter Amendment.
Today, in the United States of America under the Lautenberg-Specter Amendment 'persecuted religious' minorities like Jews, Christians, Baha'is fleeing Iran jump the queue to gain citizenship in the United States. Almost exactly like the Modi government's CAA, the Lautenberg-Specter Amendments positively discriminate among minorities by creating a 'reasonable classification' to exclude the Muslim majority. Yet, the liberal establishment in the United States has never accused its own successive governments of turning the country into a Christian theocracy.
Notably, even the Trump administration, which has an allergy to refugees, has persisted by extending the hallmark Lautenberg-Specter legislations each year. If recently, the Trump administration has begun to face flak for discriminating against Muslims by extending the Lautenberg-Specter Amendments, it is only because it's an election year in the United States.
The late Frank Lautenberg was the son of Jewish immigrants who grew up poor in New Jersey, United States. But he beat the odds to eventually become a Senator and championed this amendment bearing his name as he felt moved by the plight of persecuted minorities in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
What's most intriguing is that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRSF) that has passed a scathing verdict against the Modi government has itself championed the Lautenberg-Specter Amendments. On 23 Feb 2018, this great self-proclaimed watch dog of religious freedom was so alarmed by the denial of protection to the 'Lautenberg-Specter' refugees that it remarked, "These refugees (Jews, Christians, Baha'is) face the imminent danger of return to Iran, where the already dire situation for religious minorities is steadily deteriorating".
If the USCIRSF and other 'news vendors' in the United States are so concerned with the future of 'persecuted religious minorities' in Iran why exhibit such disdain for the Modi government's effort to secure the endangered future of 'persecuted religious minorities' in Pakistan? Are Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Jain and Buddhist lives in Pakistan inferior to those of Christian, Zoroastrian and Baha'i in Iran? Surely not. So what other possible reason could there be for such blatant hypocrisy?
Are the members of the USCIRSF and the 'news vendors' in United States upset that Narendra Modi has become Prime Minister despite their long-standing attempts to paint him a 'Hindu' bigot throughout the 2000s?
The eagerness with which the 'liberal' intelligentsia in India has championed the Western line on the CAA without so-much as even a 'fact check' raises some serious questions about its motives. Today, not only have these apparently jaundiced advocates of secularism succeeded in whipping up unparalleled fear in Muslim minds but they are also providing cover-fire to the Opposition to play a divisive and corrosive political hand.
While no one is arguing that the Lautenberg-Specter Amendment is the touchstone of Constitutional morality, the law doesn't make the United States of America anymore bigoted or anti-Muslim than the CAA does India.
Note. Adapted from Rahul Shivshankar's 'The inconvenient truth about the Anti-CAA protests' in Beyond The Headline.
Tailpiece.
Had got up at our usual time despite it being a Sunday, as our maid, Bina was reporting for work today. By about 1000 hrs, Lekha and I'd driven across to the nearby supermarket to buy grocery to be ready for Leela chittamma and her family's arrival tomorrow. They will be here, with us, for a day. The rest of the day was quiet and uneventful.
In striking similarity to the Modi-led NDA's legislative initiative, the United States federal government in 1989 resolved to allow Jews and 'other religious minorities' from the former Soviet Union to resettle in the US as refugees. The Lautenberg Amendment, much like the CAA today, was ratified by the US Congress. The Lautenberg Amendment was eventually extended to include 'persecuted minorities' from Iran in 2004 through the Specter Amendment.
Today, in the United States of America under the Lautenberg-Specter Amendment 'persecuted religious' minorities like Jews, Christians, Baha'is fleeing Iran jump the queue to gain citizenship in the United States. Almost exactly like the Modi government's CAA, the Lautenberg-Specter Amendments positively discriminate among minorities by creating a 'reasonable classification' to exclude the Muslim majority. Yet, the liberal establishment in the United States has never accused its own successive governments of turning the country into a Christian theocracy.
Notably, even the Trump administration, which has an allergy to refugees, has persisted by extending the hallmark Lautenberg-Specter legislations each year. If recently, the Trump administration has begun to face flak for discriminating against Muslims by extending the Lautenberg-Specter Amendments, it is only because it's an election year in the United States.
The late Frank Lautenberg was the son of Jewish immigrants who grew up poor in New Jersey, United States. But he beat the odds to eventually become a Senator and championed this amendment bearing his name as he felt moved by the plight of persecuted minorities in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
What's most intriguing is that the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRSF) that has passed a scathing verdict against the Modi government has itself championed the Lautenberg-Specter Amendments. On 23 Feb 2018, this great self-proclaimed watch dog of religious freedom was so alarmed by the denial of protection to the 'Lautenberg-Specter' refugees that it remarked, "These refugees (Jews, Christians, Baha'is) face the imminent danger of return to Iran, where the already dire situation for religious minorities is steadily deteriorating".
If the USCIRSF and other 'news vendors' in the United States are so concerned with the future of 'persecuted religious minorities' in Iran why exhibit such disdain for the Modi government's effort to secure the endangered future of 'persecuted religious minorities' in Pakistan? Are Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Jain and Buddhist lives in Pakistan inferior to those of Christian, Zoroastrian and Baha'i in Iran? Surely not. So what other possible reason could there be for such blatant hypocrisy?
Are the members of the USCIRSF and the 'news vendors' in United States upset that Narendra Modi has become Prime Minister despite their long-standing attempts to paint him a 'Hindu' bigot throughout the 2000s?
The eagerness with which the 'liberal' intelligentsia in India has championed the Western line on the CAA without so-much as even a 'fact check' raises some serious questions about its motives. Today, not only have these apparently jaundiced advocates of secularism succeeded in whipping up unparalleled fear in Muslim minds but they are also providing cover-fire to the Opposition to play a divisive and corrosive political hand.
While no one is arguing that the Lautenberg-Specter Amendment is the touchstone of Constitutional morality, the law doesn't make the United States of America anymore bigoted or anti-Muslim than the CAA does India.
Note. Adapted from Rahul Shivshankar's 'The inconvenient truth about the Anti-CAA protests' in Beyond The Headline.
Tailpiece.
Had got up at our usual time despite it being a Sunday, as our maid, Bina was reporting for work today. By about 1000 hrs, Lekha and I'd driven across to the nearby supermarket to buy grocery to be ready for Leela chittamma and her family's arrival tomorrow. They will be here, with us, for a day. The rest of the day was quiet and uneventful.
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