Chennai: Tamil Nadu on Wednesday joined a select few States in the country to officially oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with its Legislative Assembly adopting a resolution urging the Union Government to repeal it.
"This August House considers that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, passed by the Parliament in the year 2019 is not in tune with the secular principles prescribed by the Constitution and also not conducive to the communal harmony that prevails in India," the resolution moved by Chief Minister M K Stalin said.
"As per established democratic principles, a country should be governed taking into consideration the aspirations and concerns of the people belonging to all sections of the society. But it is clearly seen that the CAA was passed in such a way that it does not accord warm support to the refugees considering their plight, but instead discriminates (against) them according to their religion and their country of origin. Therefore, to protect and ensure the unity and communal harmony of this Country and to uphold the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution of India, this August House resolves to urge the Union Government to repeal CAA, 2019," the resolution concluded.
Speaker M Appavu declared the motion, which was supported by members of the DMK and its allies, and the PMK, a constituent of the NDA, passed. The PMK's lone MP and party founder S Ramadoss's son Anbumani, had strangely voted in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, in the Rajya Sabha.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, whose AIADMK had supported the Bill in the Parliament but later ahead of the Assembly elections made feeble assurances to seek its repeal, led his party colleagues in a walk out claiming that his party was being denied an opportunity to speak about issues on alleged stalling of schemes launched by his erstwhile Government.
BJP leader Nainar Nagendran claimed the CAA has absolutely nothing against Muslims.
The Chief Minister, while moving the resolution, argued that CAA is not required and refugees should be seen as fellow human beings. Stalin added that they have been made to protest as the Union Government has not bothered about the Sri Lankan Tamils while passing the Act.
Recently the DMK Government had passed a resolution in the Assembly opposing the three central farm laws. The Government had earlier dropped charges against those who participated in the anti-CAA protests in Tamil Nadu.
