Kerala CM Vijayan attacks BJP, Congress on CAA ahead of Lok Sabha polls

CM Pinarayi Vijayan at a rally held against CAA. (X)

As Kerala gears up for the Lok Sabha polls in April, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday, 22 March, used the CAA as a political weapon to attack its INDIA front ally Congress and the BJP-led NDA, accusing both of them of being in favour of the controversial citizenship law.

At a huge anti-CAA rally held by the CPI(M) in Kozhikode, Vijayan said that while the BJP openly indicated its intention to implement the contentious law, which discriminates against people on religious lines, the alleged silence on the part of Congress leaders is tantamount to them being in favour of the law.

The massive rally held today at Kozhikode beach against #CAA serves as a strong warning to the Sangh Parivar forces trying to divide the society. It became a testament that Kerala is united in opposing the draconian law by upholding the legacy of our social progress. pic.twitter.com/sfRaQutDL9

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) March 22, 2024

Attack on Congress

The CM attacked the top leadership of the grand old party, including its president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, of being silent even after the rules for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) were notified recently by the Centre.

The senior Marxist leader had made the same allegations less than two weeks ago at a press conference held in the state capital.

Reiterating them, Vijayan accused the Congress and its top leaders of withdrawing from a united front against the CAA after initially joining the protests against the legislation back in 2019.

He also accused the Congress of playing a “hypocritical game of hide-and-seek” and said that such a stand would only benefit the RSS, the Sangh Parivar and the government at the Centre backed by the right-wing outfits.

Also Read: CM Pinarayi Vijayan spearheads anti-CAA rallies across Kerala

Congress opposed CAA: Satheesan

Earlier, the Congress, including Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly VD Satheesan and party MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor, had accused Vijayan of spreading lies and making baseless claims when the Marxist leader had made similar allegations last week.

Satheesan had said that the Congress, including its leaders from Kerala, had opposed the CAA in Parliament, right from the beginning, and that there were media reports to prove it.

The opposition leader also said that Rahul Gandhi’s stand against the CAA was widely reported in the national media and he is the one who has been clashing with the RSS. That is why there are 16 cases lodged against him by the Sangh Parivar in 12 states, Satheesan said and questioned which CPI(M) leader has taken the RSS head-on like Rahul Gandhi has.

Expressing similar views, Tharoor had asked the CM to do basic research before making such statements.

Also Read: Kerala moves SC seeking stay on CAA implementation

‘Hindutva agenda’

Besides attacking the Congress, Vijayan today also used the CAA to hit out at the BJP by accusing it of implementing the RSS and Sangh Parivar’s alleged agenda of targeting the Muslim community in the country.

“It is part of the extreme Hindutva agenda of the RSS and the Sangh Parivar,” the CM alleged.

He also pointed out that the global community, including the United Nations, Amnesty International and the US, have criticised the CAA as it was “unconstitutional, against human rights and posed a challenge to the idea of India”.

The CM said that the LDF and the Left government in the state will oppose the CAA wholeheartedly.

He also emphasised that the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) will not be implemented in Kerala.

“The LDF-led Kerala government will be at the forefront of this fight. The assurance that the struggle will continue at any cost is reiterated once again. We will not bend our knees nor will we be silent,” he said.

The CAA was passed in December 2019 and subsequently got the President’s assent, but there were protests in several parts of the country against it, with many opposition parties speaking out against the law, calling it “discriminatory”.

The Act grants citizenship to undocumented migrants of all religions— except Muslims— from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before 31 December 2014.

(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)