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London, Jan. 30 (PTI): The European Parliament has postponed until March a vote on a joint motion, combining five different resolutions tabled by its members against India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which was debated at its Plenary session in Brussels.
The debate opened on Wednesday with a statement by Helena Dalli, the Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who spoke strongly in favour of the "rich, frank and open" relationship the European Union shares with India.
"We believe that it is the role of the Supreme Court of India to assess the compliance of the law with the Constitution and we are confident that the ongoing judicial process will contribute to appeasing the tensions and violence witnessed over the past weeks in the country," said Dalli.
She said the Commission was looking forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming visit to Brussels in March for the 15th India-EU Summit.
She concluded the debate with a message to "pursue and intensify" dialogue with India as a "respected democracy" and valued EU partner.
During the debate, a group of MEPs, mostly from Britain who will cease to be members of the European Parliament after the UK officially leaves the European Union on Friday, spoke out vehemently against the postponement of the vote to March.
Pakistan-origin MEP Shaffaq Mohammed and others such as S&D's John Howarth and VERTS/ALE's Scott Ainslie described the CAA as a "highly discriminatory" legislation and alleged that the EU had crumbled in the face of India's diplomatic lobby and prioritised trade and business interests over human rights concerns by postponing a vote on the motion.
"The only lobby that has won today is that of common sense and respect," countered ECR's Polish MEP Ryszard Czarnecki, one of the MEPs from Poland to speak out in India's favour.
He was strongly backed up by two Indian-origin MEPs, Dinesh Dhamija and Neena Gill, among others who pointed out elements of "disinformation" around the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) within the combined motion tabled by five groups of the European Parliament.
Thierry Mariani, a French MEP, alluded to the "hand of Pakistan" in the motion being tabled, while others condemned it as meddling in another country's internal affairs.
Earlier, the European Parliament had announced that the vote on the motion would be postponed to the Plenary session in March.
"Following a decision by MEPs at the opening of Wednesday Plenary session in Brussels, the vote on the resolution on India's Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 has been postponed to the March session," said a statement from the European Parliament.
One of the groups behind the motion, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), said the reason for the postponement was because the CAA was undergoing a legal process in India.
"As the Supreme Court in India will rule in the coming days linked to this issue and, as such, the law may be adapted, it was considered better to vote on the resolution in the European Parliament when there is full clarity on the situation," a spokesperson said.
However, another group GUE/NGL, objected to the postponement, saying they "disagreed" with the delay.
Meanwhile, the government sources in Delhi claimed a diplomatic victory over the vote delay and said friends of India prevailed over those of Pakistan in the European Parliament.
"Strenuous efforts of outgoing British MEP Shaffaq Mohammad to have a resolution passed by the European Parliament against India on the penultimate day before Brexit were defeated,"