'Most nations accept CAA as India's internal matter'

India's aggressive outreach to foreign governments on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that had triggered protests in parts of the country, prompting voices of concerns in the global community, appears to have paid off.

“Barring a few countries, most of the countries have accepted that this in an internal matter of India,” External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters here.

He said India had adopted a two-pronged approach – reaching out to foreign envoys in the national capital and asking India's envoys in global capitals to engage with the governments and decision-makers there.

Kumar said India made it clear to the foreign governments that CAA only expedited citizenship to persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and does not affect the regular avenues to acquire citizenship.

Indian envoys, through their interlocutors, also conveyed to foreign governments that the CAA did not seek to strip any Indian of his citizenship. He said it was also conveyed that the CAA also does not alter the basic structure of the Constitution as portrayed in a section of the foreign media.

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member nations, a section of the US democrat leaders, and a few others had voiced concerns over the CAA and the protests that broke out in parts of the country thereafter.

Kumar said India also had reached out to the OIC member nations to address their concerns over CAA and dismissed as “speculative” reports that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were planning to convene a meeting of the grouping on Kashmir.

The anti-CAA-NRC protests had led to the cancellation of the visits of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to India.

Kumar said fresh dates of the Japanese Prime Minister's visit will be finalised soon.