Citizenship should not be linked with any religion and India belongs to all and not to one religion, said D. Raja, General Secretary of Communist Party of India, here on Saturday.
Stating that the Constitution of India should be saved from fascism, he added that contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was not only against Muslims, but was against the poor people of the country.
He was addressing a gathering of about 10,000 people at a State level meeting organised by Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi (MJK) at Codissia Grounds in Coimbatore demanding Central Government to repeal the CAA and not implement the National Population register (NPR) and the National Registry of Citizens (NRC).
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MJK leader and MLA Thamimum Ansari said that Modi-led Government implemented CAA to subvert realities such as unemployment and effect of economic slowdown on industries and other areas.
The resolutions passed at the meeting wanted the Central Government to remove Amit Shah from the post of Union Home Minister, compensation and Government job for the families of the victims of Delhi riots, withdrawal of police high-handedness on student protestors, scraping of new methods of census proposed by Central Government, Tamil Nadu Government to pass a resolution in the assembly against CAA and stringent action by the police against those creating communal disharmony.
The meeting criticized the present AIADMK Government, accusing it of not following secular ideologies of late Chief Ministers M.G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa and for supporting CAA in both houses of parliament when it was a Bill.
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It also demanded the arrests of police officers involved in use of force against protesters at Washermenpet.