Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha on Monday did not rule out the possibility of the Union government enforcing President’s Rule in the States ruled by Opposition parties if they refused to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) for a long period.
“Pagal log hain, kuch bhi kar sakte hai [they are mad people, they can do anything],” Mr. Sinha told reporters here at a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
While pointing out the opinion of experts that as per constitutional position, the States could not defy the Centre’s law, he said “full cooperation” of the States was required to implement anything.
Mr. Sinha said if the Centre issued instructions to the State governments to implement the law but they sat on it, for say six months or two years, “the only instrument the government” has is Article 356 of the Constitution, President’s rule. The situation has led to a state of “constitutional crisis”, he said.
Mr. Sinha, who was in Lucknow as part of his nationwide Gandhi Peace March, slammed the BJP government for not reaching out to people who are “in fear” and protesting against the CAA and proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Calling the NRC in Assam a “botched up exercise”, he said that despite the experience in the State, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced on the floor of Parliament that there would be a nationwide NRC, without any estimation of the costs and machinery required for it.
He listed three reasons for opposing the CAA. First, he argued, the Act went against the “basic structure of the Constitution”. Second, it was not required, he said, arguing that the government already had the power to grant citizenship to anybody it wished as per the original law. Third, the “language used in the law” by the government would make it hard to be implemented. “Maybe, their intent is not to implement it but to mislead people,” he said.
