New Delhi:
After creating unrest within the country, the Narendra Modi government’s contentious Citizenship Amendment Act that excludes Muslims while granting citizenship to illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, has now started scaring of foreign investors from funding businesses and start-ups in India. Top venture capitalist Tim Draper has expressed his serious concerns over Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA, terming it an issue that may derail his plans to fund Indian businesses.
Known for his early investments, Draper, who funded companies like Skype, Tesla and Baidu, had recently re-entered India by stitching a partnership with Blume Ventures. He had exited India an year before the Narendra Modi-led BJP government stormed to power. "India Choosing One Religion Over Another Makes Me Seriously Concerned About My Business Plans There," the American billionaire wrote on Twitter while sharing a news report on Citizenship Amendment Act protests.
India has been witnessing nation-wide protests, some of them even turned violent, over the "divisive" Citizenship Amendment Act, that grants Indian citizenship to all the illegal immigrants of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan unless they are from Muslim community. The citics say that the provision to grand citizenship on religious basis and exclusing a partiular community from it is against the Constitution of India.
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The government, however, argued that the bill was not discrimintory to Muslims and grants citizenship to those who were persecuted in these three countries. However, questions were raised about the government's intention as Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka, Buddists in Tibet and Christians in Bhutan have also been facing similar persecution for years.
Critics of the bill says that this is the BJP government's giant step towards "Hindu Rashtra" as it plans to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) throughout the country. In NRC, those who will not be able to prove their Indian citizenship will be declared illegal migrants. However, with the Citizenship Amendment Act in place, all Hindus and other non-Muslims will get the citizenship but there is no such provision for Muslims, thus, putting their future as Indian citizens in limbo.
