CAA rules notified: Opposition-ruled states say bid to polarise polls, will oppose

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated that his state will not implement the CAA. Left-ruled Kerala was the first state to challenge the CAA in the Supreme Court, and its Assembly was the first to pass a resolution against the law in 2019.

“The Central Government’s notification of the Rules to the Citizenship Amendment Act in the wake of the elections is aimed at disquieting the nation. The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the notification regarding the CAA, just ahead of the announcement of the elections to the Lok Sabha. This is to divide the people, incite communal sentiments and undermine the fundamental principles of the Constitution. This move to stratify Indian citizens who have equal rights, must be opposed unitedly,” he said.

“This can only be seen as part of the Hindutva communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar. Denying citizenship to Muslims while granting citizenship to non-Muslims who immigrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before 31 December 2014, is a blatant violation of the Constitution. This amounts to defining Indian citizenship on the basis of religion. It is an open challenge to humanity, the nation’s secular tradition and its people,” he said.

“The LDF Government has repeated several times that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which treats Muslim minorities as second class citizens, will not be implemented in Kerala. We reiterate that position. Kerala will stand united in opposing this communal and divisive law,” the Chief Minister said.

E_gazette_11032024 by Express Web on Scribd

His Tamil Nadu counterpart and DMK leader M K Stalin was equally scathing. Like Kerala, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had also passed a resolution in 2021 calling for repeal of the law.

“The Union BJP Government’s divisive agenda has weaponised the Citizenship Act, turning it from a beacon of humanity to a tool of discrimination based on religion and race through the enactment of the CAA. By betraying Muslims and Sri Lankan Tamils, they sowed seeds of division,” he said.

Stalin said the Union government had “kept the act in cold storage” all this while “fearing backlash from the people.”

“Now, as elections loom, Prime Minister Modi seeks to salvage his sinking ship by cynically resurrecting the Citizenship Amendment Act, exploiting religious sentiments for political gain. However, the people of India will never forgive the BJP for unleashing this divisive Act and their spineless lackeys, the ADMK, who shamelessly supported it. People will teach them a befitting lesson,” Stalin said.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee said she would fiercely oppose the CAA if she found it to be discriminatory against groups of people living in India and if it curtailed their existing citizenship rights. “Such instigation is unwanted before the polls. We will not tolerate this and protest against this,” Banerjee said at a press conference at Nabanna.

“We will protest against this… Why is this being announced just before the polls? Why just before Ramadan starts?”

The Chief Minister also questioned the effective use of the possible online portal through which CAA applications could be made: “Will the system work?”

Banerjee said the alleged attempts to cancel Aadhaar cards of Matua and Namasudra community members in West Bengal were a “ploy” to lend credence to the CAA notification. “We had understood that conspiracy in advance and called it out,” she said, in an apparent reference to a protest letter on deactivated Aadhaar cards she wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month.

Stating that the CAA and the NRC are sensitive to not only Bengal but also to the North-East states, Banerjee said she does not want unrest ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “The BJP is forcefully provoking the people before the polls,” she said.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the entire country opposes the CAA. “After ruling the country for 10 years, the Modi government has brought the CAA before the elections. At a time when the poor and the middle class are facing hardships because of price rise and the unemployed youth are struggling to find jobs… these people have brought CAA instead of solving those real issues,” he said.

“They are saying that minorities from three neighbouring countries will be given citizenship in India.. which means they want to bring people from neighbouring countries and settle them in India. Why? To create a vote bank. When our youth do not have employment… Who will provide employment to people coming from neighbouring countries? Who will build houses for them? Will the BJP provide them employment? Will the BJP build a house for them?” he said.

Kejriwal claimed that more than 11 lakh businessmen and industrialists, fed up with the government’s policies, have left the country. “Instead of bringing them back, they want to bring the poor from neighbouring countries and settle them in India. Why? Just to create your vote bank? The entire country opposes the CAA. First, give jobs to our children and give houses to our people… then bring people from other countries to our country,” he said.

Both Banerjee and Kejriwal mentioned opposition to the CAA in the North-East.

The Congress, too, slammed the government. “It has taken four years and three months for the Modi Government to notify the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed by Parliament in December 2019. The Prime Minister claims that his government works in a business-like and time-bound manner. The time taken to notify the rules for the CAA is yet another demonstration of the Prime Minister’s blatant lies,” Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh said.

“After seeking nine extensions for the notification of the rules, the timing right before the elections is evidently designed to polarise the elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam. It also appears to be an attempt to manage the headlines after the Supreme Court’s severe strictures on the electoral bonds scandal,” he said.

While AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi said CAA is divisive and is based on Nathuram Godse’s notion that Muslims should be “reduced to second-class citizens”, CPI general secretary D Raja said the “BJP-RSS combine has linked citizenship with religion which is against the Constitution” and has framed the rules on the eve of elections to “divide the people”.