Kerala govt 'secretly' trying to implement CAA: Congress

Playing the role of the Opposition in Kerala, Congress has now claimed that the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the state is 'secretly' trying to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The leader of Opposition in the Kerala state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, said on Friday that the Kerala government is actually going ahead with the implementation of the contentious act, even though Chief Minister Vijayan has been vocal about being against it in public.

"The Chief Minister should end his attempts to make political gains in the name of CAA. Instead of cheating people, he should ensure that the Act is not being implemented in the state," the Congress leader was quoted by news agency ANI.

To back up his claim, Ramesh Chennithala said that CM Vijayan has been reluctant to stop the procedures regarding the implementation of the National Population Register (NPR). He added that even though the state government had stopped the NPR order recently, a new order was issued on November 12 last year to implement the NPR along with the Census.

This was being done by CM Pinarayi Vijayan to "secretly" adopt a "good boy" image before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the leader of the opposition in the assembly alleged.

The Congress leader also cited media reports accusing the Kerala government of rounding up anti-CAA protesters in the state and registering fake cases against them.

Kerala, earlier in the day, attended the meeting called by the Ministry of Home Affairs at the Ambedkar Bhawan in New Delhi regarding Census-NPR, where the chief secretaries of all states were expected to attend. Principal Secretary (General administration department, Kerala) KR Jyothilal had said that Kerala will be attending the meeting called by MHA, adding that Kerala will seek suggestions regarding the training and appointment process for Census and NPR from the Director of Census.

However, it is also true that the Kerala state assembly had passed a resolution against the amended citizenship act, urging the Centre to repeal it. Three days ago, Kerala government had also approached the Supreme Court against the recently enacted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) seeking it to be declared unconstitutional and in violation of Article 14, 21, and 25 of the Constitution.