Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday, 22 December, responded to Prime Minister Modi’s speech at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, in which he was addressing the nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
In a Facebook post, CM Pinarayi asked the Prime Minister to “answer questions instead of having emotional outbursts.”
“Protests are happening across the country against the unconstitutional and anti-democratic move. When people are questioning this policy, it is not befitting for a Prime Minister to resort to emotional outbursts,” the post read.
Pinarayi also said that the PM has said in his speech that caste and religion are not the criteria for any schemes.
“It is now up to to the Prime Minister to prove his words through deeds. The fundamental issue of the CAA is that it discriminates on the basis of religion... The answer they (people) need is about how religion can be a criteria for deciding on citizenship,” the post further added.
The CM also added that Modi’s assurances sounded hollow as no less than Home Minister Amit Shah himself had earlier contradicted this claim.
“The majority of this country are in a struggle to uphold our Constitution and its principles. Don’t underestimate their resolve, and their struggle must not be misrepresented,” he said.
‘Answer Our Questions,’ Says Kerala CM to PM Modi
On Sunday, PM Modi had undertaken a huge rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan where he addressed the nationwide anti-CAA-NRC protests.
“I want to tell the 130 crore citizens of India that since my government has come to power, since 2014, there has been no discussion on NRC anywhere. Only after the SC order, this exercise was done for Assam. Lies are being spread,” Modi said during his speech.
However, Home minister Amit Shah has in more than one instance linked both the Citizenship Amendment Act to the National Register of Citizens stating that all ‘Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Christians’ excluding Muslims would be given citizenship, following which the NRC would be carried out to throw out ‘infiltrators’ in the country.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute)
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