CAA was our attempt to correct historical wrongs: S Jaishankar

S Jaishankjar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the Citizen Amendment Act was the present NDA government's attempt to correct historical wrongs.

"This is an issue of correcting a situation in our history. It is to be just and fair for those who were caught on the wrong side of history when the partition took place, " said Jaishankar replying to a question on the CAA in News18's Rising Bharat Summit.

These are stateless people who are stateless for no fault of theirs. We are righting a wrong that was done in the past, reiterated the foreign minister.

Defending the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), the EAM said Pakistan’s failure to follow the Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950 in spirit necessitated amendments to the Citizenship Act, 1955.

On March 11, the Central government implemented the CAA five years after it was passed in Parliament in December 2019, triggering massive protests across the country and becoming a subject of intense scrutiny.

Kerala was the first state to move the Supreme Court against the CAA in 2020, saying that it was against the provisions of the Right to Equality granted by the Indian Constitution.