Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) will not be implemented in Kerala.
Our government has repeatedly said that the Citizenship Amendment Act, which treats Muslim minorities as second-class citizens, will not be implemented in the state,” Pinarayi Vijayan said in a statement shortly after the Home ministry notified the CAA rules.
He said that the whole of Kerala will be united in opposing this communally divisive law.
He accused the Central government of notifying the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act ahead of the elections to disturb the communal harmony of the country.
On Monday, just before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification regarding the amendment of the Citizenship Act.
Pinarayi Vijayan said it can only be seen as a part of the Hindutva communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar. It is a flagrant violation of the Constitution to grant citizenship to non-Muslims who immigrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014, and to deny citizenship only to Muslims, he added.
He said that Kerala was the first assembly to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The Kerala Government has announced that NPR will not be implemented in the state, CM Vijayan further said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) General Secretary PK Kunhalikkutty has said the Centre notifying rules for the contentious CAA before the Lok Sabha polls were illegal. “We will challenge this in the court,” he said.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 and subsequently got the President’s assent but there were protests in several parts of the country against it.