Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to chief ministers of 11 non-BJP states asking them to join in a combined non-cooperation movement against the Centre in the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The letter prompts chief ministers to adopt resistance measures like the assembly resolution that the Kerala Assembly had passed on December 31. The resolution had expressed the Kerala Assembly's concern about the impact the CAA would have on the nation's secular credentials. "States, which have the opinion that the CAA should be repealed can also consider similar steps so that it will be an eye opener to the proponents of the CAA and the NRC," the letter stated.
The Chief Minister, in his letter, said that the CAA had stoked widespread apprehensions. He added that Kerala government had already moved in to calm the fears. "Kerala has decided to address the apprehensions about National Register of Citizens (NRC) and (the fear) that preparation of National Population Register (NPR) would lead to NRC by staying all activities relating to NPR in the state," the letter stated.
He said the need of the hour is unity among all Indians who wish to protect and preserve our cherished values of democracy and secularism. "People from all sections of the society, irrespective of any difference they might have, need to stand united in preserving the basic tenets of our polity which form the cornerstone of Indian democracy," the letter stated.
Here are the 11 chief ministers Pinarayi has written to: Jharkhand CM hemanth Soren, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Delhi CM Aravind Kejriwal, Mahrashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Bihar COM Nitish Kumar, Andhra Pradesh CM Jaganmohan Reddy, Puducherry CM V Narayana Swami, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Punjab CM Amareendar Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik.
At least three of them – Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik and Jaganmohan – are said to be closer to the BJP.
The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding scrapping of CAA, amid raging countrywide protests against the legislation, becoming the first state to do so.
The ruling CPI(M)-LDF and the Opposition Congress led UDF supported the resolution while BJP's lone MLA and former Union minister O Rajagopal's was the only dissenting voice in the one-day special session.
Hours after the assembly had passed the resolution, union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had hit out at the Left government and said Pinarayi 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.
BJP's Rajya Sabha member, G V L Narasimha Rao also wrote to the House chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to initiate breach of parliamentary privileges and contempt proceedings against the Kerala CM over the resolution.