Assam CM Sarma criticises Congress, urges support for BJP in upcoming by-elections
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took aim at the Congress, accusing it of obstructing development and lacking commitment to public welfare.
Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan said on Wednesday repeated statement of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) won’t be implemented in Kerala is a Constitutional improbability aimed at misleading voters in Kerala.
Launching a Congress march to Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday to protest against the Centre’s notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, Satheesan said only parliamentary legislation by a Congress-led government can annul this communally divisive law.
Stating that the states had little role in implementing the divisive CAA, Satheesan said only parliamentary legislation can revoke the law passed by the Lok Sabha in 2019. The Congress is the only secular political force that could bring about such legislation at the national level, he said.
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The senior Congress leader said India would be retrogressed into an electoral autocracy if the intrinsically Hindu majoritarian BJP comes to power for a third term at the Centre. Therefore, it is essential that secular forces bury their provincial differences and join hands with the Congress to fight the Sangh Parivar, Satheesan added.
He said the enforcement of the CAA by the BJP would soon synchronise with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). In 2019, the Central government temporarily staved off judicial scrutiny of the CAA by lying to the Supreme Court that it did not seek to enforce the contentious law. However, the BJP now gone back from the promise, he said
Satheesan further said the Central government also overstepped the Constitutional boundary that demarcated religion from politics by converting the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya into a state-sponsored event.
Shortly after the Home Ministry notified the CAA rules on Monday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reiterated that the CAA won’t be implemented in Kerala.
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