Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday hit out at the state government for passing a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the Assembly.
"The resolution is not legally or constitutionally valid. The government is wasting its time on irrelevant issues," Khan said.
“Citizenship is a matter of the Union list. The state has no right to formulate laws on the subject,” he added.
The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday unianimously passed a resolution demanding scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Khan, however, said that he was not against the general opposition to the act. "Kerala is in no way afffected by the Act. The repurcussions of the partition never affected the state. Issue of illegal immigrants is a non-issue in Kerala," he said.
Khan also accused that it was the Indian History Congress that mooted the idea of the resolution.
Khan faced protests from the delegates of the 80th Indian History Congress, including eminent historian Irfan Habib, in Kannur last week when he spoke in favour of CAA.
State assemblies have their own priveleges: Kerala CM
Hours after the assembly had passed the resolution on Tuesday demanding the scrapping of the CAA, union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had hit out at the Left government and said Vijayan should seek "better legal advise".
Prasad had also said it is only "Parliament which has got the powers to pass any law with regard to citizenship; not any assembly, including the Kerala Assembly.
But Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan rejected his criticism, and said the state assemblies have their own privileges.
"State Assemblies have its own privileges. Such actions are unheard of anywhere. But we cannot rule out anything in the present circumstance as unprecedented things are happening now-a-days in the country," Vijayan said.
The Assemblies have its own special protection and it should not be violated, he said.