After Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government passed a resolution in the assembly against the Citizenship Amendment Act and subsequently filed a petition against it the Supreme Court, Kerala BJP leader K Rajasekharan has moved the apex court to file a plea in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
#Breaking | Kerala BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan (@Kummanam) files pro-CAA plea in the SC.
TIMES NOW’s Harish Nair with details. pic.twitter.com/2eNrZ1GchY
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 17, 2020
Coming on the heels of the Kerala government’s petition challenging the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act, senior BJP leader and the former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan has approached the Supreme Court against the government plea alleging that the Kerala government has not explained in its plea how the Citizenship Amendment Act discriminates against the Indian Muslims as alleged by them and how Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are facing prosecution.
Terming the Kerala government’s petition as “Political Gimmick”, Rajasekharan stated in his plea that there were no provisions in the Citizenship Amendment Act that would affect the social and fundamental rights of the inhabitants of Kerala. He also mentioned in his plea that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan wasn’t even consulted before the state government decided to move the Supreme Court.
“It is contended by the plaintiff in this case that the CAA is discriminatory as it has excluded migrants from Srilanka, Myanmar and Bhutan which share an International border with India. The primary religion in these countries is Buddhism and the Hindus, Muslims and Christians are in minority. The case of the plaintiff is that the aforesaid minorities are excluded from the Act. Though such a contention is made, it is not explained how the minorities are facing religious persecution there. It is further contended that the exclusion of Ahmadiyas, Shias and Hazaras living in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan is discriminatory but the plaintiff is not explaining how these groups who are themselves Muslims facing religious persecution,” the plea filed by Rajasekharan read.
Earlier, after the resolution was passed in the Kerala State Assembly against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Pinarayi Vijayan government moved Supreme Court challenging the Act. This also elicited criticism from the Kerala Governor who was visibly furious for not being informed of the same by the Kerala government.
“I am not going to remain a rubber stamp. The state government has filed a petition against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Supreme Court. But I came to know about it only by the media reports. As the head of the state, the government should have informed me before approaching the apex court,” a visibly livid Khan said.
After Kerala, today Punjab assembly also moved a resoluiton against the CAA, demanding to scrap the amendment.
