Congress organises dharna in front of Kerala Raj Bhavan against CAA enforcement

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday organised a dharna in front of the Raj Bhavan here to protest against the Central government's decision to enforce the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

Addressing the dharna, the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, V D Satheesan, alleged that the BJP-led government issued the CAA notification to divide the people along communal lines.

''When the Congress was in power at the Centre, we brought several legislations to uplift the lives of the poor. But when the BJP came to power, they enacted laws to divide the people for political purposes,'' the Congress leader alleged.

He said that the Congress will fight the law and there would be no compromise on it.

The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to grant citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.

Several leaders of the Congress party, including UDF convenor and senior party leader M M Hassan, CWC member and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, and Attingal MP Adoor Prakash, took part in the dharna.

In his speech, Tharoor said if the Congress comes to power at the Centre after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, ''we will throw the CAA into the Arabian Sea''.

''This is my word as a member of the Congress party's manifesto committee,'' he said.

Meanwhile, a meeting of KPCC office-bearers, DCC presidents, and members of the political affairs committee held here decided to continue the legal and political fight against the CAA.

Hassan, who assumed the role of acting president of the KPCC today, said that the legal and political fight would persist until the CAA is withdrawn.

The senior Congress leader said that the CAA notification was issued by the Narendra Modi-led government just before the Lok Sabha elections with the sole aim of religious polarisation, and asserted that ''this unconstitutional law would not stand in court.'' The Congress also accused Kerala's Left government of adopting double standards on the matter.

Satheesan alleged that the state government was unwilling to withdraw more than 800 cases registered by the Left regime in connection with the UDF's protests against the CAA a few years ago.

He said that a case was also registered against those who protested against the law the previous day, and demanded that if the chief minister is sincere, he should withdraw the case.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)