Thread on the anti-CAA resolutions:

The anti-CAA resolutions in cities like SF, Seattle, etc are simultaneously an admission by the activists that their arguments have no actual traction among Indian voters AND evidence of their stranglehold on the diaspora political discourse.

The fact, for example, that such a resolution could be passed so easily in SF, despite the bay area being the heart of Indian American financial and corporate influence is a stark and depressing reminder of just how far we have to go politically in America.

Now you might say "the resolutions don't bother me because I am also against the CAA," but this is not about whether you are for or against the bill. What should insult you is that a totally uninformed @sfbos deems it appropriate to opine on the bill in the first place.

Colonial overtones aside, SF is suffering from record homelessness, a looming unemployment crisis, and skyrocketing cost of living, yet a bunch of clueless supervisors took it upon themselves to condemn a democratically passed humanitarian measure that grants amnesty to refugees

currently in India. The bill isn't perfect, but the recent Gurudwara bombing in Afghanistan and on-going reports of forced conversions and violence against Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh underscore why it was urgently necessary. But the supervisors didn't even get this far.

They did not care to study the bloody history that motivated the bill's passage, because they saw the resolution as a low-risk political move that would satisfy some highly motivated activists who argue against all evidence that the bill will strip Indian muslims of citizenship

That there is actually a compelling moral argument in favor of the CAA was immaterial, because they knew that the risk of a political backlash from Indian Americans in the city is exceedingly low, even if most actually support the bill.

And assuming that IA attitudes track those of actual Indians, this is a safe assumption. On December 21, 2019 when protests were on-going, 62% of Indians supported the bill. I'd guess that these numbers are quite a bit higher today. https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/62-people-across-india-support-caa-survey/1691305

So as clownish as these resolutions are from an Indian perspective, I do think they raise some serious questions for Indian Americans. We can't blame politicians for ignoring the plight of the persecuted, if we ourselves are not willing to leverage our privilege to speak up

For more information, read @HinduAmerican's statement on the CAA here:

https://www.hinduamerican.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/HAF-Statement-for-the-Record_USCIRF-Hearing-on-Citizenship.pdf-Laws_3.6.20.pdf