Ahead of assembly polls, AIADMK says will urge centre to withdraw CAA

AIADMK’s announcement over CAA drew sharp criticism from DMK. The opposition said AIADMK is trying to fool people with such double-standards. “If the AIADMK members had not voted in favour of the law three years ago, the law wouldn’t have passed in the Rajya Sabha test. I don’t know how the party is having no shame in making such an announcement, do they think the people of Tamil Nadu are fools?” a senior DMK leader said.

Hours after the announcement from Edappadi, BJP’s national secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu CT Ravi took to Twitter and said irrespective of who opposes it, the act will not be scrapped. “DMK owner @MKStalin says that his party will continue to fight against #CAA. Why is Stalin opposing a law to provide citizenship to oppressed Hindus, Sikhs and Christians from Pakistan & other Nations? Stalin or anyone else can oppose it, the CAA will not be scrapped,” he tweeted.

Ravi’s reaction comes after DMK leader MK Stalin in their election manifesto mentioned that the law would be scrapped after DMK comes to power. In an addendum to the party manifesto unveiled on Saturday, he said DMK opposed the CAA and even ran a campaign in Tamil Nadu collecting one crore signatures pressing for scrapping the law.

The DMK in its manifesto has said that the Centre would be requested to include Sri Lanka in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and give citizenship to Lankan Tamil refugees living in camps in India. DMK has also vowed to abolish the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test while the AIADMK has promised to set up coaching centres for competitive exams like NEET, JEE, UPSC, etc.