The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the main opposition party of Tamil Nadu, has decided to move a resolution against the Citizenship Act in the upcoming session of the Tamil Nadu assembly. The decision comes two days after Kerala Legislative Assembly passed a resolution against CAA. DMK MLAs gave a representation to Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary K Sriniasan on Thursday.
DMK had led a huge protest against the Citizenship Act on December 23. Congress leader P Chidambaram had also participated in the protest demonstration.
The DMK President MK Satlin had as well opposed opposed NRC and NPR saying, “both are two sides of same coin.”
The Kerala Legislative Assembly passed a resolution against the Citizenship Act on December 31. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself placed the resolution, which was passed with just with one member in opposition. The members of opposition, Congress-led-UDF also supported the resolution. The only member to oppose was BJP’s sole legislature in Kerala O Rajagopal.
Rajagopal had contended the that the resolution was illegal, as both the Houses of Parliament had passed the Act. The CPI(M) led LDF government became the first in the country to pass a resolution against CAA.
Till now, five state governments, ruled by non-BJP parties— Punjab, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh — have assured that they will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, saying “the ruling BJP at the Centre is undermining the secular and democratic foundations of the country”.
However, the Governor of Kerala has said that the resolution passed by the Kerala assembly against the newly amended Citizenship Act, has no ‘constitutional validity’.
“This resolution has no legal or constitutional validity because citizenship is exclusively a central subject, this actually means nothing”, said the Governor.
The Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said on Wednesday that it is the state governments “constitutional duty” to implement the laws passed by Parliament.
Ravi Shankar Prasad had also said, “the states which say that they would not implement the amended citizenship law should seek appropriate legal opinion before taking such decisions.”
Tamilnadu has a 236 member assembly. The ruling AIADMK has 126 seats while the main opposition party DMK has 100 seats. AIADMK is an NDA ally in the centre as well they contested Lok Sabha polls 2019 in an alliance with the BJP.