MEA has a ‘perception management’ problem in the way the Citizenship Amendment Act is viewed in Dubai.
DUBAI: The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has its task cut out when it comes to “perception management” in the international city of Dubai regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). People from Muslim community, from various countries, with whom The Sunday Guardian spoke, believe that the Act was brought into existence to “throw out” Muslims from India. A Bangladeshi taxi driver working in Dubai for the last five years told The Sunday Guardian, “The CAA is a very discriminatory law. The Indian government is trying to corner Muslims in India by excluding them from citizenship.”
A Pakistani restaurant owner in Bur Dubai’s Al Karama Market also echoed the same sentiments. Kareem, the Pakistani restaurant owner, said, “The Indian government is being unfair to the Muslims. The law on citizenship is designed to throw away the Muslims from India. They have been living there for generations and now suddenly everything is in confusion.”
Asked whether he has read the Act and where he has read that Muslims will be thrown out of India, Kareem said, “No, I have not read it, but it is all over the news that Muslims in India are under threat; they are not even being allowed to protest freely in India.”
Another Pakistani taxi driver in Dubai said he believed that the government in India has brought this Act unnecessarily. Speaking to this correspondent, Imran, the taxi driver who lives in the Peshawar district in Pakistan, said that he has Hindu friends in Pakistan and they all live, eat and celebrate festivals together and that there is no such Hindu hate crimes in Pakistan as is projected in the media.
Imran said, “Some areas in Pakistan may have it; but I know for myself that I have so many Hindu friends and we all live together happily. The Indian government is doing this for its politics; they want to consolidate the Hindu vote bank, but this is creating so much problem. This has also led to the Delhi riots. These things have never been good for the people.”
Saber, a Yacht manager from Kenya at the Marina Walk in Dubai’s Down Town area, also said that he has read that the Indian government is trying to exclude Muslims from India and he says he is very hurt by the decision of the Indian government.
Speaking to this correspondent, Saber said, “I am very hurt that our Muslim brothers in India are being treated differently. I also heard about the Delhi riots. Is it not sad that so many people were killed because they were protesting for their rights?”
Even an Indian from Kerala who works at a mall in Deira Dubai said that the Indian government has “snatched” the rights Indian Muslim citizens.
“The Indian government has targeted Muslims in India. I am very happy here. Although there is monarchy here, we are living happily, but in India Muslims are scared, because as you know many poor families do not have papers to show; how will they prove their lineages? This is so wrong that has been done,” said Nabeel from Kerala who works in Dubai.
Asked who has told him that Muslims would be required to show papers to prove their citizenship, Nabeel said, “Do you not see the news? It is being said in the news that you need papers, because the government is going to send representatives to verify documents to each house in India.”
The Indian government, including the Ministry of Home Affairs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clarified that the Citizenship Amendment Act will not take away anyone’s citizenship, but give citizenship to persecuted minorities from the Indian neighbouring Islamic states and that there has been no discussion on the nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Yet, many Indians even from Dubai believe that the Indian government has not been able to communicate the real idea and intention about the CAA.
One such Indian Muslim from Lucknow, running an Indian restaurant in Dubai, said, “The problem is not with the Act, the problem is with the lack of communication from the government to each and every Muslim assuring them that nothing will happen to them. The Indian government should reach our proactively to ensure that the community trusts the government.”