DMK president M.K. Stalin on Wednesday said his party and its alliance partners would hold a massive rally in Chennai on December 23 to bring pressure on the Centre to repeal the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Talking to reporters after chairing a meeting of alliance partners at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, Mr. Stalin made an appeal to all sections of the society, cutting across party lines, to participate in the rally.
Asked why actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan was not invited for the meeting even though he was keen on attending it, Mr. Stalin said he had spoken to Mr. Kamal Haasan and explained that only 11 political parties that are allies of the DMK, had been invited for the meeting. “In the future, if necessary, we will invite other parties, he said.
Mr. Stalin said the meeting’s particpants had urged the Centre to explain why illegal immigrants among Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims had been excluded from being granted Indian citizenship.
When asked about Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s argument that no Indian citizen had been affected by the CAA, Mr. Stalin said he was not surprised by the Chief Minister’s stand since he had surrendered before the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“If the 11 AIADMK Rajya Sabha members and the lone PMK MP had voted against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, it would not have become a law. The two parties are thoroughly exposed as betrayers of Tamils,” he charged.
Mr. Stalin said the government should take into consideration the protests in North India and the North-Eastern states and repeal the CAA.
