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Maharashtra shouldn’t enforce CAA, says Pawar; JD(U) moots all-party meet
Pawar alleged that the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) were mere “ploys” by the Centre to “divert attention” from serious issues plaguing the country.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government over the citizenship amendment act (CAA) and urged the Maharashtra government, of which the NCP is a part, to refuse implementation of the contentious law.
Pawar alleged that the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) were mere “ploys” by the Centre to “divert attention” from serious issues plaguing the country, and that their implementation will disturb the social and religious harmony of the country. The 78-year-old leader added that it was not just the minorities, but those who are concerned about the country who were opposing CAA and NRC. “The Maharashtra government should take a stand in line with eight states that have opposed NRC. I am going to discuss the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray,” Pawar said at a press conference in Pune.
The NCP chief’s statement comes amid widespread protests in the country against CAA, which was passed by Parliament earlier this month.
Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly, meanwhile, marched in a large procession against the amended citizenship act from the party office in Bir Chand Patel Marg in Patna to Dak Bungalow crossing. “I am Hindu. I am Indian. I am against CAA,” he tweeted.
Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Saturday called upon its ally BJP to convene a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the proposal to have a countrywide NRC.
“If a meeting of the NDA is called, the JD-U will welcome it. Given the conditions in the nation [over the anti-CAA protests], the meeting is very important,” JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi told ANI, adding that several NDA parties have expressed their views against NRC. He said Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar made it clear that it will not be implemented in the state. “We are against NRC,” he said.
Several other states -- including Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal and Rajasthan – have opposed the implementation of the proposed pan-India NRC exercise. This includes opposition from BJP allies. While Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party national president Chirag Paswan on Friday signalled their opposition to NRC, Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Singh Badal said Muslims too should be part of CAA.
The government has maintained that the CAA merely fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but there are fears that CAA will be followed by a nationwide NRC, which will require residents of India to prove their citizenship. A Supreme Court-ordered NRC excluded 1.9 million people, including lakhs of Hindus, in Assam in the final list released this year.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, too, hit out at the BJP, saying CAA and NRC were against the “fundamental spirit of the Constitution” and should not be allowed at any cost. Referring to the protests across the country over the issue, she said in a statement that people were fighting on the streets to “protect the Constitution” but the Centre is “bent upon barbaric repression and violence”.
BSP president and former UP CM Mayawati also asked the Centre to give up its “stubborn stand” as the “voices opposed to the CAA and NRC have started coming from within the NDA”, reported news agency PTI.
The BJP, which has maintained the CAA does not affect any Indian citizen, said on Saturday it will start a mass outreach programme, contacting over three crore families and organising rallies in every district to expose the Opposition’s “lies” over the next 10 days, party general secretary Bhupender Yadav told reporters in New Delhi.
