Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday said resolutions passed by states against the Citizenship Amendment Act were a “political gesture” as they do not have a role in granting citizenship, PTI reported. So far, Left-ruled Kerala and Congress-led Punjab have passed such Assembly resolutions demanding the withdrawal of the law, while West Bengal has promised to bring one to its Assembly.
Earlier this week, the Kerala government had announced it would not cooperate with any work related to updating the National Population Register, which is the first step towards creating a National Register of Citizens. The register is a proposed nationwide exercise to identify undocumented immigrants. The state has also challenged the validity of the Citizenship Act in the Supreme Court. Kerala, however, said it would cooperate with the exercise to update the Census.
Tharoor said states would have a say in the implementation of the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens because their officials would conduct the exercises. “They [the states] can pass a resolution or go to the court but in practice what can they do?” the Congress leader asked in an interview to PTI in Kolkata. “The state governments can’t say they won’t implement CAA, what they can say is they will not implement NPR-NRC as they will have a crucial role in it.”
The amended Citizenship Act has expedited the path to citizenship for six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered India before December 31, 2014. However, the government’s critics fear that since a religion criterion has been added to the Citizenship Act, only Muslims will be disproportionately affected by NRC.
The Congress leader welcomed Supreme Court’s decision to refer the amended legislation to a larger five-judge bench. “This Act by naming religions in relation to citizenship has violated the Constitution,” he added. “But at least the five-judge Constitution bench will hear all the arguments and look into the merits of it. That’s the only way we can resolve the fundamental disagreement”.
Tharoor said the law can only be struck down if the Supreme Court declares it unconstitutional or if the government revokes it. “Now, the second option is not viable as the BJP will never accept its mistakes,” he added.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said the Centre needs to do much more than remove the religion clause in the Citizenship Act. “It needs to say we will not ask questions about place of birth and citizenship and will not prepare the NRC,” he added.
States such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar have also said they won’t implement the Citizenship Amendment Act or the population and citizen registers. Bharatiya Janata Party ally Janata Dal (United) is in power in Bihar.
Senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and Jairam Ramesh said over the weekend that it would be “constitutionally difficult” or problematic for state governments to not follow laws passed by Parliament. Ramesh also wondered if the resolutions would stand judicial scrutiny.
Also read:
‘Do not implement NPR or NRC,’ scholars and former civil servants urge non-BJP chief ministers
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