Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M.K. Stalin on Wednesday refuted the Centre’s accusation that the Opposition parties were wilfully instigating protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), and urged the Tamil Nadu government to pass a resolution against the three.
Mr. Stalin was speaking at the ‘Kudiyurimai Paadhukappu Maanadu’, organised by the Tamilaga Makkal Otrumai Medai, at YMCA, Royapettah in Chennai.
Stating that the BJP had not fulfilled a number of promises that it made, Mr. Stalin said: “We have not come together to fight the BJP government, but to save India, India’s unity and its people. There are many issues for us to oppose the BJP politically. We don’t need CAA for politics. This is an issue that concerns the people and the country.”
He charged that right wing forces were dividing people on the basis of religion.
“We oppose Hindutva, not the people who believe in Hinduism,” he said.
Mr. Stalin criticised the Central government for allowing the protests to turn violent in New Delhi.
N. Ram, Chairman, THG Publishing Pvt. Ltd., noted that the country had not seen such an “upsurge in several decades” as it had against the CAA, the NPR and the NRC, and said that this was not just a Hindu-Muslim issue but an attack on the Constitution.
‘Violative of Article 14’
“It has gone to the Supreme Court and what I expect from the court is that it will strike down the CAA. It is violative of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution,” Mr. Ram said.
He added: “Even if the Supreme Court fails to strike down the CAA as unconstitutional, we must still oppose it. It goes against the basic structure of the Constitution.”
He said that the Tamil Nadu government must not go ahead with the NPR. He also appealed to actor Rajinikanth to reconsider his support for the CAA, the NPR and the NRC.
Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said: “When I spoke in the Assembly after passing the resolution in the House, I said that India is a democratic country of various cultures. And, we will not allow people to be divided on the basis of religion. If we have to spill blood, we will do it for inter-faith harmony and we don’t care about losing power.”
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan could not make it to the event due to health reasons.
Reading out the message from Mr. Vijayan, K. Balakrishnan, State Secretary, CPI(M), said: “India’s values of secularism and tolerance face a threat today. It is important to safeguard religious tolerance and unity to face these threats."
