Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the Congress for being mute in its opposition to the “patently anti-Muslim” Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Vijayan said Rahul Gandhi, who is seeking re-election from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, has not uttered a word about the Central government’s Lok Sabha election eve push to impose the communally divisive law that seeks to relegate Muslims to a subaltern status by setting religion as a criterion for citizenship.
Mr. Vijayan said Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge restricted himself to a cursory remark on social media against the Centre’s framing of rules to implement the law.
Close home, Mr. Vijayan said, AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, the Opposition candidate for Alappuzha LS constituency, has questioned the Centre’s four-year delay in implementing the contentious law.
“He found the Central government’s timing inappropriate and saw no fundamental flaw in the anti-Constitutional legislation,” Mr. Vijayan said.
He said Mr. Venugopal, by contesting from Alappuzha, further did a disservice to the secular cause by attempting to cede his Rajya Sabha seat from Rajasthan to the BJP.
“The BJP disposition in Rajasthan will nominate a party person to the seat if Mr. Venugopal wins from Alappuzha. The LDF will ensure that Mr. Venugopal keeps his RS seat by trouncing him in Alappuzha,” he said.
Mr. Vijayan said that in 2019 the Congress initially supported the Kerala Assembly’s resolution urging the Centre to annul the divisive law. Later the party changed tack. None of the Congress MP’s from Kerala challenged the CAA in the Lok Sabha, he said.
He said no Congress leader was arrested for supporting anti-CAA protesters in New Delhi. “They were dining in Sonia Gandhi’s house even as CPI(M) leaders and MPs got arrested for protesting the law,” he said.
Mr. Vijayan reiterated that the LDF government would not implement the CAA in Kerala, despite the Congress’s best efforts to undermine the State’s resolve.
“Congress leaders have scoffed at the LDF government’s attempt to challenge the CAA in court on the premise that the enactment aspired to alter the basic secular structure of the Constitution,” he added.
Mr. Vijayan said the LDF government would be at the forefront of the battle to preserve secularism and insulate minorities from trespasses by the Sangh Parivar.
It would not allow the Centre to roll out the National Register of Citizens, which seeks to relegate naturalised emigrants and refugees hailing from the Muslim community as “illegals and infiltrators”.
“The LDF will not bend its knee to the Sangh Parivar or be silenced. It will always be at the vanguard of the looming battle to defend India’s secularism and protect the rights of minorities,” Mr. Vijayan said.
