A day after the Union government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi notified the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday said that the CAA will not be implemented in the state.
Stalin dismissed the CAA as ‘divisive and bereft of any use’.
He also hit out at the BJP regime at the Centre for notifying the rules for implementing the CAA ‘in a haste’ when the Lok Sabha polls are around the corner.
“There is not going to be any use or benefits due to the CAA, which only paves the way for creating divisions among the Indian people. The stand of the government is that this law is completely unwarranted; it is one that must be repealed.”
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Hence, “the Tamil Nadu government will not give any opportunity in any manner to implement the CAA in Tamil Nadu,” he asserted in an official release.
Stalin, also president of the ruling DMK, reiterated that the CAA went against pluralism, secularism, minority communities, and the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
Apart from Stalin, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too attacked the Centre over the implementation of the CAA, claiming the rules notified were ‘unconstitutional and discriminatory’.
She, while addressing an official programme at Habra in North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday, said she would not allow the implementation of the CAA in West Bengal and urged the people to think several times before applying for citizenship under the law.
“I have doubts if the CAA rules notified yesterday have legal validity. There is no clarity on it,” she said.
“The CAA and the rules framed are unconstitutional, and discriminatory under Article 14 of Constitution, which is the fundamental right to equality,” she said.
Amid huge protests across the country, the Parliament passed the CAA in 2019. The act expedites the citizenship process for non-Muslim migrants – including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians – who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before 2014. The CAA Act also has faced numerous delays and continued criticism from the Opposition parties.
On Monday, the MHA notified the rules of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). “The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will be notifying today the Rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019). These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for a grant of Indian citizenship,” the Union Ministry for Home Affairs said in a post on X (formerly called Twitter).
According to the details, all the applications must be submitted online through a newly formed portal with citizenship hopefuls declaring the year they entered India without travel documents.
With agency inputs.
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