JAIPUR: Rajasthan Assembly on Saturday passed a resolution urging the Centre to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), amid opposition by the BJP which accused the ruling Congress of pursuing appeasement politics.
It is the second Congress-ruled state to pass such a resolution after Punjab.
Earlier, Kerala Assembly too had passed a resolution against the CAA moved jointly by the ruling Left alliance and the opposition Congress-led UDF.
The Rajasthan Assembly passed by voice vote the resolution which also asked the Centre to withdraw the new fields of information that have been sought for updation in National Population Register (NPR), 2020.
"It is evident that the CAA violates the provisions of the Constitution. Therefore, the House resolves to urge upon the government of India to repeal the CAA to avoid any discrimination on the basis of religion in granting citizenship and to ensure equality before law for all religious groups of India," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said while moving the resolution in the House.
Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria questioned the right to challenge the Act in the state assembly.
"Granting citizenship is a matter under the Centre and and in such a situation do we have the right to challenge the CAA. The Congress should stop doing appeasement and vote bank politics," the BJP leader said.
It is written in the resolution that the CAA violates the basic spirit of the constitution. It is feared by a large section of people in the country that the preamble of NPR and NRC is the same. Census work should be done only after withdrawal of new provisions of NPR. Recent amendments made through the Citizenship Amendment Act differentiate people on religious grounds. It is designed to deprive citizenship of India to a section of individuals.
Apart from this, the proposed additional information required from all the people living in the country is likely to cause great inconvenience to the population at large. There will be no real benefit. Assam state is a living example of this. Therefore, with the withdrawal of the amendment of the CAA, the central government should also remove the apprehensions that have been sought in the NPR for the updates. They should also be withdrawn. Only after withdrawing the amendment to the NPR, census work should be taken up under it.
The resolution also says that there is a clear statement in the constitution that India is a secular country. This is the basic feature of the Constitution and it cannot be changed. Along with this, Article 14 of the Constitution clearly makes it clear that no person in the territory of India will be deprived of equality before law or equal protection of laws. The goal of the Citizenship Amendment Act-2019 i.e. CAA is to differentiate illegal immigrants on the basis of religion. Such discrimination on the basis of religion is not in conformity with the iconic ideals of the Constitution and is in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.
The resolution states that for the first time in the history of the country after independence, a law has been brought which differentiates people on the basis of religion and will put the country's secular fabric at risk. Apart from this, no provision has been made in the CAA regarding migrants from other neighbours such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan. Critics have questioned why these countries were omitted.
There have been several demonstrations against CAA-NRC in Rajasthan but they have been totally peaceful.