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There is no getting around the reality that the six resolutions tabled in the European Parliament against the Citizenship Amendment Act and proposed NRC, as well as the detentions and restrictions on communications in Kashmir, show India in poor light. The resolutions, which will be taken up for discussion on January 29, varyingly denounce the CAA as having the potential to create the largest crisis of statelessness in the world, of having adverse consequences for India’'s internal stability, of being discriminatory on the grounds of religion, and of violating the principle of equality. In all, the resolutions involve 626 of the 751 members of the European parliament. Only one of the resolutions, by a centre-right bloc in the EP, was willing to give any quarter to India, coming close in its formulation to India’'s position that these are internal matters on which a sovereign power has the right to take its decisions.

The resolutions have come weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to go to Brussels for the EU-India summit in March, an important event in Delhi’'s diplomatic calendar. The two sides have been trying to tie up a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement, a pact that acquires more significance after India’s withdrawal from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The EU is India’'s largest trading partner and some parliamentarians had earlier said that any trade agreement with India should include a human rights clause. Delhi has not made an official statement yet, but has put out unofficially that the European Parliament has no business debating the authority and rights of a democratically elected government and its legislature. However, it has to be borne in mind that just three months ago, it was the Indian government that invited two dozen European lawmakers from India-friendly far-right groups and took them on a guided tour of Kashmir as part of its diplomatic outreach to explain the August 5 decisions, hoping their pro-India views would carry the day. As a seasoned international player, the Ministry of External Affairs should know that it cannot take the position that only favourable views on its internal affairs are kosher.

Today’'s globalised world is as concerned about the movement of people as it is about the movement of goods. Actions by any country with potential for causing ripples elsewhere worries the international community. India cannot turn its face away from such concerns though no European nation has criticised the government'’s moves. The resolutions should also give pause for Delhi to consider how much headway diplomacy can make when the ground situation inspires little confidence.

Why is Europe or the European parliament concerned about laws on citizenship made in India?

A) Because Pakistan filed a complaint against India

B) Because their observer team was invited by India

C) Because the issue was taken up by the UN

D) Because the globalized world is concerned about the movement of people.