Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has said only parliamentary legislation by a Congress-led INDIA bloc government can annul the “patently anti-Muslim” and schismatic Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Inaugurating the Congress’s march to Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on March 13 to protest against the Centre’s notification of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, Mr. Satheesan termed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s steady refrain that Kerala would not implement the Central law a “Constitutional improbability aimed at deluding voters in Kerala”.
He pointed out that the States had little role in implementing the divisive CAA.
“Only parliamentary legislation can revoke the law passed by the Lok Sabha in 2019. The Congress is the only secular political force that could bring about such a legislative turnaround at the national level,” Mr. Satheesan said.
‘Electoral autocracy’
He said India risked backsliding into “an electoral autocracy” if the intrinsically Hindu majoritarian and nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ascended to power for a third term at the Centre.
Hence, Mr. Satheesan said it was imperative that secular forces buried their provincial differences and joined hands with the Congress to fight the Sangh Parivar.
Mr. Satheesan said the Sangh Parivar has struck at the very secular core of the Indian Constitution by setting religion as a criterion for citizenship.
He said the divisive move had caused “a deep sense of disenfranchisement” among Muslims and rendered the minority community immensely insecure and apprehensive about their future.
‘Toxic recipe’
“The Sangh Parivar is conjuring up a toxic recipe for communal resentment, revanchism and social unrest by demonising and othering minority communities”, he said.
Mr. Satheesan said the BJP’s enforcement of the CAA would soon be in sync with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
He said such a move would disenfranchise and result in the incarceration, deportation and persecution of lakhs of poor and undocumented families from minority and tribal communities, especially in the north-eastern States.
Mr. Satheesan said the BJP was “inherently duplicitous.” In 2019, the Central government temporarily staved off judicial scrutiny of the CAA by lying to the Supreme Court that it did not seek to enforce the contentious law. However, the BJP reneged on the promise.
He said the Centre notified the rules to enforce the law on the cusp of the Lok Sabha elections to demonise Muslims and thereby galvanise majority community votes.
He said the Central government also overstepped the Constitutional boundary that demarcated religion from politics by converting the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya into “a State-sponsored event.”
“The BJP has been in power at the Centre since 2014. It has nothing to write home about development or welfare. Lord Ram is the party’s only calling card”, Mr. Satheesan said.
He said unemployment has trebled under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s watch. “The rich-poor divide has increased so much that an elite 2% super-rich control 99% of the country’s wealth,” he said.
“Corporations thrive on loans extended by national banks, which hold the meagre deposits of ordinary people. Fuel and cooking glass prices have increased multi-fold, as has inflation. Mr. Modi’s sole guarantee is misery and social unrest”, he said.
Mr. Satheesan said the Sangh Parivar had unleashed “an establishment-backed war” on minorities, backward classes and Dalits.
“Cow vigilantism, mob lynchings, honour killings, rape of Dalit and tribal women and children have increased multi-fold. The BJP government at the Centre and those in the States have tacitly encouraged such pogroms. The Congress is the only bulwark against the Sangh Parivar’s ascendancy”, he said.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) acting president and United Democratic Front (UDF) convener M.M. Hassan, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor, Adoor Prakash, MP, M. Vincent, MLA, and District Congress Committee (DCC) president Palode Ravi was among those who spoke.
