Thiruvananthapuram: The notification of CAA rules by the Central government has triggered separate protests by the CPI(M)-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF in Kerala, even as the BJP vehemently defended the contentious law, asserting that it does not target Muslims.
Determined to fight the issue politically and legally, the Kerala government said it was mulling over moving to the Supreme Court to challenge the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) notification.
Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev said: “The state government has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court opposing the CAA. We are currently evaluating whether to amend the existing lawsuit to challenge the notification issued by the Central government or to file a separate lawsuit altogether.”
“A decision on this matter will be reached within a few days,” he said. The move came a day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan denounced the CAA as divisive and assured that it would not be implemented in the state. As the implementation of the CAA rules has snowballed into a political issue ahead of polls in the southern state, which has a significant Muslim population, with both the LDF and the UDF vehemently opposing it, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar criticised Vijayan, accusing him of misleading the public.
“Shri Pinarayi, don’t make the people fools. The CAA is not designed to revoke anyone’s citizenship but to grant it to refugees persecuted on religious grounds who came to India. This is not discriminatory against Muslims,” Javadekar said in a post on ‘X’ in Malayalam.
Javadekar, who is also the BJP in-charge of Kerala, said Muslims are not persecuted for their religion in Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan. Countering the BJP’s claim, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan alleged that the CAA is a communal agenda. “Muslims are also persecuted in our neighbouring country. The Rohingya Muslims case in Burma has not been considered by the Centre.
The Left has taken a very strong stand against the CAA, and we have stated that it won’t be implemented in Kerala,” Govindan said here.