The movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is also against those who stood with colonisers in the freedom movement when the people’s unity was divided on communal lines, said Kearala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He said the movement has rekindled the spirit of our nationalist movement.
“In the past, our movement was against the colonisers. In the present our struggle against communalism is a movement against those who stood with the colonisers. Back then the colonisers tried to disrupt the people’s unity by dividing us on communal lines. Today, the communal elements are using the same strategy experimented by their previous masters,” he said.
He was speaking at the fourth edition of the Mumbai Collective on the topic of “The National Struggle against communalism”. The session was chaired by N. Ram, Chairman, The Hindu Group Publishing Private Limited.
“In the face of untold economic miseries and emerging people’s resistances, they seek to break the unity of workers, farmers, students, Dalits and adivasis, in the name of religion. We should be able to see through these sinister designs and defeat them.”
Clarifying that the actions of the Kerala government of passing the resolution against the CAA and approaching the Supreme Court against it are constitutionally valid, Mr. Vijayan said the State Ministers take oath and have a duty to stand by the Constitution. “The only provision in the Constitution that limits discussion in legislature is the Article 211 which curtails discussions on the conduct of judges in the Supreme and the High Courts. Apart from that, legislatures can discuss any issue that they deem fit and pass resolutions as well,” he said.
The Kerala Chief Minister said the people of the country have a historical responsibility to ensure that the lofty values enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution are preserved and protected. “It is in this line and with this spirit that the government of Kerala and the Legislative Assembly have taken a strong stand in defence of the secular principles intrinsic to our Constitution,” he said.
