CM MK Stalin dismissed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as ‘divisive and bereft of any use’ and asserted that it will not be implemented in the state…reports Asian Lite News
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) only “creates division” and would not be implemented in the southern Indian state.
“The 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 CAA. By betraying Muslims and Sri Lankan Tamils, they sowed seeds of division,” Stalin said in a statement on X.”
Despite staunch opposition from democratic forces like the DMK, the CAA was passed with the support of BJP’s stooge ADMK. Fearing backlash from the people, the BJP kept the act in cold storage. After DMK came to power in 2021, we passed a resolution in TNLA urging the Union Government to repeal the CAA to safeguard the unity of our nation, uphold social harmony, and protect the ideal of secularism enshrined in our constitution,” said the chief minister who heads the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Stalin also questioned the notification of the CAA rules more than four years after Parliament passed the legislation in December 2019.
“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 Citizenship Amendment Act and their spineless lackeys, the ADMK, who shamelessly supported it. People will teach them a befitting lesson,” Stalin wrote on X.
Earlier on Monday, soon after the implementation of the CAA was notified, the chief minister slammed the BJP government at the Centre for doing so in haste when the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner.
The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants – including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians – who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
Annamalai questions Stalin’s authority
After Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced that his government would not implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in the state, BJP TN President Annamalai questioned the authority of the CM to prevent the act to come into force.
The BJP Chief, while addressing a press conference here, claimed that persecuted minorities are happy with the implementation of the CAA.
“In these three countries any religious persecuted minorities have come in so they will be granted citizenship by following a process… This amendment is not going to take a citizen from anybody, in fact, people are going to gain their citizenship. In what world Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is living? So what authority does he have to say that I am going to prevent this from happening, he cannot prevent it, how can he prevent it?” Annamalai said.
He further said that the statement made by MK Stalin ‘is going against the oath he has taken’.
“It is going against the oath he has taken, better he resigns and gives a political speech…All the religious persecuted minorities are happy yesterday they celebrated sweets, are then not our people?” he added.
Stalin on Tuesday dismissed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as ‘divisive and bereft of any use’ and asserted that it will not be implemented in the state. (ANI)
AIADMK Calls CAA a ‘Historical Blunder’
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday criticised the central government for notifying the rules for implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019.
The AIADMK leader called it ‘huge historical blunder.’
“In the context of the announcement of general elections, the ruling BJP government at the Center has published a notification in the gazette that the CAA Act 2019 (Citizenship Amendment Act) will be implemented from today. AIADMK has been insisting that this Act should not affect any indigenous community in the country,” Palaniswami said in a post on X on Tuesday.
The AIADMK leader alleged that this has been carried out for ‘electoral gains’ and ‘divide the people’.
“The CAA has been implemented for electoral gain in order to create division among the people in view of the upcoming elections. AIADMK vehemently opposes this action of the central government which has been carried out to divide the people,” the post mentioned.
“The central government has made a huge historical blunder by this notification. AIADMK will never allow this Amendment Act. I would like to inform you that AIADMK will fight democratically along with the people of the country against this,” Palaniswami said.
AIADMK MLA VV Rajan Chellappa on Tuesday said that his party had signed the CAA guarantee with conditions during the alliance with BJP.
Speaking to reporters in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai, Chellappa said, “The then AIADMK government under Edappadi K Palaniswami did not sign the CAA wholeheartedly. AIADMK signed the CAA with conditions during the alliance with BJP. AIADMK will always support good deeds. We do not fully support the CAA.”
On March 11, the Union Home Ministry notified the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule.
The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government and passed by Parliament in 2019, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants–including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians–who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014. (ANI)
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