CAMBRIDGE, MA—It was the Seattle City Council first. Now, the Cambridge City Council from Massachusetts has passed a resolution that calls upon the Indian Parliament to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act and end the National Register of Citizens.
At the weekly scheduled meeting of the Cambridge City Council, which met on Monday evening in the Sullivan Chamber, Cambridge residents spoke about the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act of India, reported the Harvard Crimson newspaper.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed by the Parliament of India in Dec. 2019, provides a pathway to Indian citizenship for Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian undocumented immigrants, while denying eligibility for Muslim immigrants. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) — which was established in a 2003 amendment — will institute nationwide checks for documentation of legal citizenship, once fully implemented, according to news reports.
“The City Council’s resolution — which passed unanimously Monday evening — identifies the Modi regime’s “racist” and “repressive” policies as being “inconsistent with Cambridge’s values as a city that welcomes South Asian communities of all castes and religions,” reported the Harvard Crimson. “The resolution calls on the Parliament of India to “uphold the Indian constitution” by repealing the CAA and ending the NRC.”
Moreover, the policy order urges Cambridge’s congressional delegation “to support legislation censuring the Republic of India for adopting these policies,” according to the Harvard Crimson. “More than 10 Cambridge residents spoke about their support of the resolution during the public comment section of the council meeting.”
Seattle City Council was the first legislative body in the United States to condemn CAA and National Registry of Citizens, or NRC.
The Seattle resolution was titled: “A RESOLUTION reaffirming Seattle as a welcoming city, expressing the Seattle City Council’s solidarity with Seattle’s South Asian community regardless of religion and caste, and opposing India’s National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act.”
