The notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 by the Union government on Monday that would enable the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) triggered protests across Kerala on March 12.
Youth Congress workers blocked trains in Kozhikode and Ernakulam. Left Democratic Front (LDF) activists laid siege to the Accountant General’s office in Thiruvananthapuram. Democratic Youth Front of India (DYFI) activists vandalised Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election hoardings in the capital. Social Democratic Party of India workers marched to Raj Bhavan.
The police swung batons to chase away Fraternity Movement workers who attempted to enter the All India Radio precincts in Kasaragod. In several places, anti-CAA protesters burnt Prime Minister Narendra Modi in effigy. Several organisations held torchlight processions.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan will head a Congress march to Raj Bhavan on Wednesday.
On the electoral front, the Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] vied with each other to tap into the growing social fear that the CAA was patently anti-Muslim, ran against the grain of the Constitution and was a precursor to creating a Hindu majoritarian polity.
Indian Union Muslim League general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty told reporters in Malappuram that the BJP has sought to create a communal flash point to divide the country on religious lines for electoral dividends.
Against basic structure
In Kannur, LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan said the BJP’s attempt to insert religion as a criterion for citizenship ran against the Constitution’s basic structure. CAA’s enforcement would have undesirable consequences for Muslim families in Kasaragod and Kannur. Shashi Tharoor, MP, said the INDIA bloc would relegate the discriminatory and divisive law to the dustbin if voted to power at the Centre.
BJP’s Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar said the Lok Sabha’s 2019 enactment merely offered a safe harbour for six minority communities facing persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan by welcoming them as Indian citizens. “The CAA does not aim to disenfranchise any Indian citizen. The Congress and the CPI(M) are playing vote bank politics by spreading lies,” he said.
No jurisdiction
BJP State president K.Surendran scoffed at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s statement that the LDF would not implement the Central law in the State. “The State has no jurisdiction over the matter,” Mr. Surendran said adding the newly framed CAA rules eliminated the role of provincial governments in implementing the “benign law”.
