Amensty, USCIRF to testify at US Congress briefing on CAA

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

A day after several Indian-Americans marched across several cities in the US, experts from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Monday began testifying at a briefing on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at the US Congress.

The marchers at a dozen locations, including Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Detroit, Wichita, Bay Area, and Seattle wanted the US Government to sanction Home Minister Amit Shah, said the organisers, Sunita Viswanath of Hindus for Human Rights and Ahsan Khan of Indian American Muslim Congress in a statement.

In Houston, New York City, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco the protests were held outside the offices of the Indian Consulates.

The protesters waved the Indian tricolour and sang patriotic Indian songs besides publicly reading out the Preamble to the Indian Constitution.

The Congressional briefing will discuss the executive and legislative actions for US Government and US Congress to ensure that CAA does not discriminate against any section of Indian society.

The expert panel at the US Congress briefing includes Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, Amensty’s Franciscos Bencosme who had testified on Kashmir before the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Asia, Pacific and Non-proliferation on October 22, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch, who had testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives on November 14.