Two days after the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said the move had no constitutional or legal validity as citizenship was a central subject.
“This resolution has no legal or constitutional validity because citizenship is exclusively a central subject, this actually means nothing,” said Khan, who hit headlines last week after his speech at the Indian History Congress was disrupted by delegates protesting against the law.
The Governor also criticised the Indian History Congress, claiming that it has made some recommendations to the state government, including not to cooperate with the Centre. The recommendations are "totally illegal" and have "criminal content", he said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had on Tuesday moved the resolution against the citizenship law. Vijayan, who has accused the BJP government of executing the RSS agenda of dividing the nation on communal lines by passing the Act, said in the state assembly, “I want to make it clear that no detention centres will come up in Kerala. Kerala has a long history of secularism, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, everyone reached our land. Christians and Muslims reached Kerala in the very beginning. Our tradition is of inclusiveness. Our assembly needs to keep the tradition alive.”
Calling the implementation of CAA a “violation of the fundamental right of equality”, the Kerala CM said, “The CAA 2019 passed by both houses of the Parliament has created concern among various communities, there has also been state wide protest against the same. In Kerala there has been a peaceful and untied agitation in general (against the CAA). The Act, which has set new guidelines for granting citizenship, is a violation of the fundamental right of equality as mentioned in the part III of the Constitution.”
A day after the Citizenship Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on December 11, Vijayan had lashed out at the Narendra Modi-led government and said the "unconstitutional Bill" will have no place in Kerala and the state will not implement it. While asking the people to oppose the Bill, Vijayan had claimed that the proposed law is a rejection of secularism and the saffron party had made it clear that its main political plank is communalism.
“National freedom movement was a convergence of various streams. The Indian constitution took shape with the essence of modern democracy and secular perspectives from such movements. Indian nationalism is based on lives and cultures of various communities. This is one reason the constitution has uphold the idea of unity in diversity,” he said.
Both the Congress and the CPI (M) supported the move in state Assembly, with Congress's VD Satheesan saying, “The NRC and CAA are the two sides of the same coin. The CAA is a clear violation of Article 13,14 and 15 of the Constitution.”
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