A day after the European Parliament deferred voting on a resolution on the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA), India on Thursday said it has noted the  decision not to vote and said it will continue to engage with the European Union on the issue.  New Delhi also expressed concern over anti-India protests outside its embassy in London and urged the UK to take suitable action to prevent a repeat of such demonstrations.

Asserting that the CAA is an internal matter of India and it has noted the deferment of voting, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said it also noted India has noted European Commission’s clarification that the EU Parliament’s views don’t reflect the official position of the grouping.  Voting was to take place on Thursday.

“As I have mentioned earlier, CAA is an internal matter of India. It has been adopted though due process and democratic means,” Kumar said.  “We will continue to engage with the MEPs, the European Parliament and other stakeholders in this matter,” he said.

Kumar also said India has taken up with the British Government the issue of anti-India protests in connection with the CAA outside the Indian High Commission in London on Sunday.  These incidents create difficulties in functioning of our High Commission in London, he said adding that India hopes anti-India protests in London are not repeated in future.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament met on Wednesday in Brussels to debate the two resolutions including a sharply worded condemnation of the CAA but decided too postpone voting on them till March.  The European Parliament will now take up voting during the plenary session between March 30 and April 2.

The voting, if it takes place then, will come after the India-European Union summit scheduled on March 13, which is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  A resolution slamming the Indian government on CAA could have jeopardised the summit, sources said.

Indian diplomats in Brussels led by the country’s envoy to Belgium, Gaitri Issar Kumar, were for the last few days reaching out to the groups of Members of European Parliament (MEPs).

Sources in the Indian government termed the postponement of voting as a “diplomatic victory” for India adding “Friends of India prevailed over the Friends of Pakistan in the European Parliament today.”

They said 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.

Shaffaq Ahmed, a Pakistan-origin British MEP, was considered one of the architects of the resolutions, although it had the support of 559 MEPs in the 751-member European Parliament.

The CAA is a matter internal to India and has been adopted through a due process through democratic means. New Delhi expects that our perspectives in this matter will be understood by all objective and fair-minded MEPs” sources said.

Distancing itself from the MEPs’ move, the EU had on Monday stated that opinions expressed by the European Parliament and its members  do not represent the official position of the EU.