Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the Congress party of playing hide-and-seek with the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Inaugurating the culmination of a youth march organised by the Democratic Youth Federation of India on the Kozhikode beach on Monday, Mr. Vijayan said the Kerala Assembly had passed a resolution demanding that the Centre withdraw the recently legislated CAA. Letters to take up the move were written to the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. But they have not reacted till now, he said.
He wondered why they failed to adopt a resolution if these legislatures were sincere about conserving the secular credentials of the country. The people doubted the mindset of these leaders, Mr. Vijayan said.
Flays Mullappally
He said Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullappally Ramachandran had opposed a joint agitation with the CPI (M)-led front against the CAA. At the same time, the party adopted a different stand on various issues. This was evident in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr. Vijayan said the people had not forgotten the stand taken by the Congress leadership on various occasions. The citizens of this country were not in the pocket of some people. However, it requires a firm policy to protect secularism. The government of a State had the right to object to any legislation against the principles of the Constitution. Kerala cannot support a law that offered people citizenship based on religion.
‘RSS agenda’
He said the Centre was attempting to implement the agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh through the citizenship law. The whole nation was against it. Initially the police had been employed to suppress the protests. Now these acts were carried out directly by the RSS. That was seen in the Jawaharlal Nehru University also, he said.
