Political stance on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) is turning out to be one of the key campaign issues for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the Malabar region, which has a sizeable presence of voters from the Muslim community.
The Union government notified rules for the CAA, designed to grant citizenship rights to migrants belonging to six religions except Islam from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, on March 11.
While candidates of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist), are targeting the Congress for its alleged ambivalent position on the issue, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has sought a stay on its implementation in the Supreme Court.
K.K. Shailaja, Mattannur MLA and LDF candidate from Vadakara, is among those who have alleged that the Congress could not take a clear stance on the CAA because of its “communal attitude”. In a statement, she wondered why Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge could not declare that his party would not allow the move to grant citizenship based on religion. M.V. Jayarajan, LDF candidate from Kannur, and V. Vaseef, LDF contesting from Malappuram, too have been raising the issue in their campaign meetings.
Elamaram Kareem, MP and LDF candidate from Kozhikode, points out in a statement that the implementation of the CAA should be viewed along with the launch of the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Mr. Kareem says the then Union Minister for Law Ravishankar Prasad, who introduced the CAA in Parliament, had said the information to be collected for the NPR would be used for the NRC.
Meanwhile, it is to be noted that the CPI(M) is not coming down heavily on the IUML on this. Political analysts see it as an attempt to woo a chunk of voters from the Muslim community towards the LDF. It also wants to utilise the IUML’s alleged stand-off with the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, the Sunni scholars’ forum considered to be the backbone of that party, which is unhappy with some of the political positions of the Congress. During 2019-20, Samastha leaders had shared stage with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for anti-CAA protests, where he had declared that it would not be implemented in Kerala.
The Congress, however, is questioning the sincerity of the CPI(M) in opposing the CAA, while fishing out data to show that the LDF government had not withdrawn cases against those who protested against the CAA across the State in 2019. Party leaders claim that of the 800-odd cases registered in 2019, only 63 had been withdrawn though Mr. Vijayan had promised to revoke all the non-serious cases in 2021. The Muslim Youth League too is highlighting this point.
United Democratic Front candidates M.K. Raghavan and Shafi Parambil, from Kozhikode and Vadakara respectively, also held ‘night marches’ in Kozhikode against the CAA.
