Punjab government on Friday moved a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state assembly, becoming only the second state after Kerala to take a major move with regard to the contentious law.

The ruling Congress in Punjab was all set to bring a resolution in the two-day special session of the state assembly today demanding the scrapping of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

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The move came as Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday did not rule out the possibility of bringing a resolution against the amended citizenship law.

“Wait till tomorrow,” Singh had said when asked by reporters if the government will bring in a resolution, on the lines of Kerala, against the Act.

The state Congress government had on Tuesday said it will proceed according to the “will of the House” on the issue of CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

Singh had recently said his government would not allow the implementation of the “brazenly divisive CAA”.

After a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, his colleagues in the ministry had expressed concern over the implications of the “blatantly unconstitutional and divisive CAA, NRC and NPR.”

“The ministers were of the view that the matter was bound to be raised during the two-day session of the assembly on January 16-17 and it was unanimously decided that the government should accept the will of the House,” an official statement had said.

Singh had said neither he nor the Congress was against granting citizenship to minorities persecuted on the basis of religion but they were completely opposed to the “discrimination in the CAA against certain religious communities, including Muslims”.

Kerala became the first state to move a resolution against CAA demanding the scrapping of the controversial law.

On December 31, 2019, Kerala Assembly passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who moved the resolution and Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, who seconded it, alleged that CAA was an attempt to make India a religious nation.

“The Act contradicts the basic values and principles of the Constitution. In view of the anxiety among the people of the country, the Centre should take steps to drop the CAA and uphold the secular outlook of the Constitution,” he said.

Meanwhile, states of West Bengal, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Chhattisgarh have announced that they will not implement either the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the Citizenship Amendment Act.

West Bengal and Kerala are the only two states which have stopped the NPR procedures since they believe it is the first step for the contentious NRC.