New Delhi: The Kerala government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court against the implementation of the recently notified Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The CAA rules were notified by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday, March 11.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Kerala Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in a statement said that The stand of the government is that the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be implemented in Kerala.
“The state has already filed the original suit before the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution. The state is (now) gearing up for further legal action through the SC as the central government notified the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act. The stand of the government is that the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be implemented in Kerala,” the Kerala CMO said as reported by India Today.
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Amit Shah on slams Opposition:
Notably, some CMs of the now-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules states have been the implementation of the CAA. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had accused the opposition leaders of practising “politics of appeasement”, Amit Shah asserted that the CAA does not violate any provision of the constitution.
Clearing the air on the ‘rights’ of states which are refusing to implement CAA, Amit Shah said, “Only the central government is empowered to enact laws concerning citizenship and implement them.”
In an interview with ANI on Thursday, Amit Shah said that CAA has been brought by the Modi government and “it is impossible to repeal it”.
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“Do you have the right that you can refuse its implementation? They also understand that they do not have the rights. In our Constitution, the right to make laws concerning citizenship has been given only to Parliament. This is a Central subject, not the state’s, both the law and its implementation,” Amit Shah said.
Further, exuding confidence that all political parties would come on board and cooperate after the Lok Sabha election. Amit Shah said, “Article 11 of our Constitution gives all the powers to make rules regarding citizenship to the Parliament. I think everyone will cooperate after the elections. They are spreading misinformation for appeasement politics.”
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MEA Responds To US Statement on CAA:
Meanwhile, on Friday, The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) slammed the United States statement on the implementation of the CAA. The MEA said CAA is India’s internal matter and termed the statement by the United States as “misplaced, misinformed, and unwarranted.”
The statement comes after US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US government is concerned that the CAA could affect religious freedom in India.
“We are concerned about the notification of Citizenship (Amendment) Act. We are closely monitoring how this Act will be implemented. Respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law for all communities are fundamental democratic principles,” he said.
Introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2019, the CAA aims to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
