Kerala has a high ratio of Muslims, who along with the Christians, constitute 45% of the state’s 3.25 crore population. The remaining 55% population in the state is Hindu.
Kerala government says it will not implement the “unconstitutional” Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the state as protests against the controversial legislation gained momentum in the northeast.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state will not tolerate any “discrimination” on the basis of religion.
“In Kerala nobody has to feel any apprehension in this regard. We will not implement the lopsided law which is meant to divide people,” he said in the state capital.
Another opposition-ruled state, Punjab, too, decided to not implement the law. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the Congress will use its two-thirds majority in the state assembly to block the “unconstitutional” Bill. Punjab Congress has also urged President Ram Nath Kovind to not give assent to the Bill.
Kerala has a high ratio of Muslims, who along with the Christians, constitute 45% of the state’s 3.25 crore population. The remaining 55% population in the state is Hindu.
Vijayan said the law was against the secular spirit of the constitution and a ploy to convert India into a Hindu nation.
“The CAB has forced us to hang our heads in shame in front of other countries,” Vijayan said, alleging an RSS influence over the Bill.
“Many Muslims decided to live in India because of its secular credentials. Now the BJP is unabashedly trying to realize the dream of the RSS to make it a Hindu Rashtra,” he said.
Both houses of the Parliament have approved the Bill which seeks to grant citizenship to Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zoroastrian refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
The passage of Bill has led to widespread protests in the Northeast, where at least two people are reported to have been killed in police firing on Thursday. Mobile internet services along with rail and air transport have been disrupted in Assam.
Home minister Amit Shah, however, has stressed that the Bill is in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and has not been brought to target any particular community.
Prasanta Patnaik