External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Saturday rejected the US’ criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), stating that the remarks were made without understanding the historical context of the law.

He underlined that there are a number of examples in which many countries have fast-tracked citizenship and said it is important to put it in the context of the Partition.

“I am not questioning the imperfections of their democracy, their principles or lack of it. I am questioning their understanding of our history,” Jaishankar said referring to the US Ambassador’s comment that “principles of freedom and equality” are prime in a democracy.

“If you hear the comments from many parts of the world, it is as if the partition of India never happened. And there were no consequential problems which the CAA is supposed to address,” he added.

“You take out a problem and remove all the historical contexts, sanitise it and make it into a politically correct argument, and say oh ‘I have principles and don’t you have principles’,” the EAM further said.

Jaishankar also said that the countries that criticise India are not “holding up a mirror to their policies”. “If you are saying you are picking some faiths and not other faiths, I will give you many examples from across the world,” Jaishankar said and mentioned the Jackson–Vanik amendment, Lautenberg Amendment, Spector Amendment and so on that fast-tracked citizenships for specific ethics minorities such as Jews and Christians.

The EAM was speaking at India Today Conclave.