House adopts resolution against CAA
Stalin said that the Act was not conducive to the secular principles and communal harmony of the country
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution urging the Union government to scrap the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 to “safeguard the unity and communal harmony of the country and uphold the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution.”
Moving the resolution in the Assembly, Stalin said that the house considers that the CAA passed in the Parliament in 2019 was not conducive to the secular principles and communal harmony of the country.
“In a democracy, governance should be all inclusive, but the CAA, instead of embracing refugees on the basis of their welfare, discriminates against them on the basis of religion and country of origin,” the CM said, before remarking that it is very wrong to legalise political discrimination.
“The Act (CAA), which fuels discrimination among the people is unnecessary and we consider that it deserves to be scrapped. The Union government should drop the preparation of National Population Register and National Register of Citizens on the basis of CAA, ” he added.
DMK allies Congress, VCK, MDMK, MMK and Tamizhaga Valvurimai Katchi supported the resolution. PMK, an ally of the AIADMK, also expressed solidarity with the ruling DMK on the issue, and said that they were supporting the resolution as the CAA was against the interest of Lankan Tamils. Tamil Nadu became the eighth state to pass a resolution against the CAA, while neighbouring Kerala and Puducherry were the first state and first union territory respectively to go against the Centre’s 2019 amendment law on citizenship.
CHENNAI: The Opposition AIADMK and its ally, the BJP, walked out of the Assembly on Wednesday, even before Chief Minister MK Stalin moved the resolution urging the Centre to scrap CAA.
Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami told reporters that they could not raise key issues in the House as Speaker M Appavu did give the nod. He added that some views expressed by them --following permission for a brief while -- were later expunged.
Condemning this, Palaniswami said, his party staged a walkout. Listing initiatives like the two-wheeler scheme for women beneficiaries, he said the DMK government has “given up” on many welfare schemes of the AIADMK regime, he claimed. Tamil Nadu follows Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh (Cabinet resolution) and Telangana in passing resolutions against the CAA.
Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Jharkhand Assemblies had passed resolutions against the NRC and NPR, while Gujarat and Goa passed resolutions and a “congratulatory motion” respectively in favour of the CAA. The Meghalaya Assembly had passed a resolution, urging the Centre to keep the State out of the ambit of the CAA.