Thiruvananthapuram/Kozhikode: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said the Citizenship (Amendment) bill, passed by Parliament, will not be implemented in the state, as hundreds of students of a local college in north Kerala took out a march and burnt the effigy of Home minister Amit Shah.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) also held a protest against the CAB and various other issues, including price hike of essential commodities, in front of the state Secretariat, which was inaugurated by leader of the opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala.
A day after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) was passed in the Rajya Sabha, Vijayan lashed out at the BJP-led government and said the "unconstitutional Bill" will have no place in Kerala and the state will not implement it. While asking the people to oppose the Bill, Vijayan claimed that the proposed law is a rejection of secularism and the saffron party had made it clear that its main political plank is communalism.
"The Act is unconstitutional...Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) will have no place in Kerala and it will not be implemented in the State," Vijayan told reporters. Hundreds of students of Farook college in Kozhikode took out a long march against the CAB, tore the bill and burnt the effigy of home minister Amit Shah and raised slogans against the bill.
Raising slogans against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and holding placards saying "Boycott CAB", "Reject CAB" and "NRC Murdabad", the students, also burnt copies of the Bill. Vijayan also tweeted that democracy in the country was in danger.
"...with CAB, Sangh Parivar has used the majority they enjoy in the parliament to uproot the bedrock of Indian democracy & Constitution. It's a rejection of secularism. BJP has made it clear that their main political plank is communalism. We must resist," Vijayan said in a tweet.
"The state government will question the validity of this black law at all possible platforms. The Supreme Court has repeatedly made it clear that secularism is the foundation of the country's constitution. Through this law, the centre is trying to create a communal divide," Vijayan said.
He said India is well-known as a nation where people belonging to various castes, creed and religions live together harmoniously.
"This is a land where thousands of Muslim brothers came to settle during partition after leaving religious Pakistan for a secular India. The primitive politics of RSS compares India with Pakistan and insists on implementing their ideas," he said.
The Chief Minister claimed the new law will only help destroy the peace and harmony of the country and lead it through the situation faced by various violence-hit religious nations. "This is the law that humiliates India before the world," Vijayan said and asserted that the state government would not allow any kind of discrimination on the basis of religion.
"People of all religions and also those who are non-religious have the right to to live as an Indian citizen. It's a constitutional right," the chief minister said. Vijayan claimed the RSS was seeking to implement the agenda of the Hindu Rashtra, which was initiated by V D Savarkar and fostered by M S Golwalkar.
He said the Supreme Court had repeatedly stated that the basic structure of the Constitution cannot be amended, and claimed that the CAB will not stand judicial scrutiny. "The Union government, even after knowing all this, passed the unconstitutional law using brute majority in Parliament for cheap political motives. There is a conspiracy to tear down democracy and equality of the nation and establish dictatorship and make India a religious state," Vijayan alleged.
He said it was not wrong to suspect that it was a step towards undermining the idea of democratic republic of India and urged all sections of the people who believe in democracy and the Constitution to rally against this.
The Left leader said studies and figures have revealed that the country's economy was in dire straits and communal forces were trying to implement such divisive measures to divert public attention from serious problems.
"This is a tactic that has successfully tested and implemented by the British in India and Hitler in Germany. History has shown that they do not last long. The growing anger and protest over the amendment to the law in various parts of the country also points in that direction," Vijayan said.
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