The Congress on Saturday mobilised its cadres across Kerala to register a protest against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that “discriminates” against Muslims.
The stormy protests unfolded almost simultaneously in multiple district centres and resulted in tussles with the police. The demonstrations were part of the party’s expanding national-level “protect the Constitution of India” campaign against the Central Government. The demonstrations pivoted around Central Government offices guarded by phalanxes of police.
The agitation turned rough in Kozhikode, Kochi, Wayanad, and Thiruvananthapuram. The police repeatedly thwarted attempts by party workers to break through barricades. In Kozhikode, the police used water cannons to disperse protesters led by T. Siddique. At least 59 Congress workers, including Mr. Siddique, were arrested on the charge of unlawful assembly and rioting.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala inaugurated the protests in Malappuram, a political hotspot of anti-citizenship law protests. He slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for muscling the patently “anti-Muslim” legislation through Parliament. The law ran against the basic structure of the Constitution. The Supreme Court had set in stone that no Bill or legislation could seek to alter the fundamental composition of the Constitution in its 1973 Kesavananda Bharathi case. In Kasaragod, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullapally Ramachandran said curfews and Internet shutdowns had come to characterise Indian democracy.
Religion as criterion
The Modi-Shah combine at the Centre sought to relegate Muslims to the status of second class citizens. The new citizenship law sought to establish religion as the sole criterion for granting a refugee or migrant legal status as a national. It was patently unconstitutional. The country’s law regarded “all persons” equal under its jurisdiction. Mahatma Gandhi’s Congress would protect minorities.
KPCC vice president V.D. Satheeshan; Sashi Tharoor, MP; former KPCC president M.M. Hassan; and Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal inaugurated the protests in Kochi, Kozhikode, and Alappuzha respectively.
The Democratic Youth Federation of India held a mammoth torchlight march from Martyr’s Column to AG’s office here in protest against the controversial law.
