KEY POINTS

  • Billionaire investor Tim Draper rethinks investing in India
  • Tim Draper is concerned with India's controversial law
  • Draper already has significant exposure to India

Billionaire investor and major Bitcoin (BTC) bull Tim Draper is unafraid to publicize his predictions for the world's popular crypto, but has his boldness gone too far after making comments about a sensitive issue affecting Indian politics?

The CAA or the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by the Parliament of India on Dec. 11, and it applies to those who were "forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the ground of religion." What the legislation aims to do is to offer citizenship to refugees who were already in the country on or before Dec. 31, 2014.

However, the CAA has been criticized for having a bias for certain religions. Those undocumented migrants coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who are not Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis, and Sikhs can't be offered citizenship in India -- that excludes Muslims. Evidently enough, the CAA sparked violent protests that already had a death toll higher than Hong Kong's with 25.

For this reason, the hedge fund investor took to Twitter his thoughts about any future business dealings in the second most populous country in the world.

"India choosing one religion over another makes me seriously concerned about my plans to fund businesses there. #freedom #freedomofreligion," he wrote.

Draper already has significant exposure to India. Through his Draper Venture Network, he has invested in several Indian startups, including Gray Orange Robotics, Accio, Agara Labs, Voccal, Zanatix, and others that comprise over 80 companies in the venture fund's portfolio.

Draper also has some investments in crypto-related startups like Unocoin through Blume Ventures, another fund that belongs in the Draper Venture Network umbrella.

While Draper's company can't simply pull out his investments just yet, reconsidering whether to invest in the developing nation can have a notable impact, especially to those startups working on crypto and blockchain-related technology.

Sure enough, Draper's remarks wouldn't go unnoticed. Some have expressed their disapproval of the hedge fund investor's comment, such as Nandini Bahri Dhanda, who has 41,000 followers on Twitter. She replied to Draper's tweet with, "With all due respect if you have no understanding of a situation & a country perhaps it's best you keep your funding."

The hashtags #IndiaAgainstCAA and #CAAProtest were among Twitter's top trends
The hashtags #IndiaAgainstCAA and #CAAProtest were among Twitter's top trends AFP / Money SHARMA