Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has made it clear that his government disapproves of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and it will not be implemented in the state.
“There is no place for such an unconstitutional law in Kerala. Such a law will not be implemented in the state,” he said in a press meet today. Pinarayi Vijayan called the bill an effort to distract people’s attention from the economic distress that the country is facing.
“Statistics and studies indicating that the economy of the nation is in a pathetic state have come out now. It is nothing but to distract the public’s attention from such grave issues that communal forces are restoring to such divisive measures. The British Empire had successfully experimented this in India and it was done in Hitler’s Germany too in the past. History has proved that such moves do not last for long. The protest and objection to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 being raised in different parts of the country is indicative of the same,” he said.
He also said that through CAB, the Centre was trying to fulfill the wishes of Savarkar and Golwalkar to 'divide India based on religion'. "The Bill is against the Constitution of the country. The Bill is the product of a conspiracy to sabotage secularism and equality, which are the basic principles of the Constitution. The state government will question the Bill in all stages. The Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that the foundation of the Constitution is secularism. Through CAB, the Centre is creating a division based solely on religion."
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Pinarayi had called the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill a part of the Sangh Parivar's move to build a nation based on religion.
"The Constitution of India guarantees the right to citizenship for all Indians; irrespective of their religion, caste, language, culture, gender or profession. This very right is being made void by the Citizenship Amendment Bill. A move to decide citizenship on the basis of religion amounts to a rejection of the Constitution. The is an exercise to divide people on communal lines," hsi statement said.
Pinarayi said that the Bill was passed with extraordinary haste. "The bill, which aims to enervate our secular unity, was passed by the Lok Sabha with an unusual haste and tenacity," he said.
The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 enables illegal migrants, or those who have overstayed their visas, who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from three countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — to apply for Indian citizenship. The Bill has exempted certain areas in the North-East from this provision — the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. The applicant should have entered India on or before December 31, 2014, to be eligible for citizenship.