"Step is to divide country, reap political benefits": Kerala's LoP Satheesan on CAA implementation

Ernakulam (Kerala) [India], March 12 (ANI): Kerala's Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan on Tuesday attacked the Union government for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying that the step is to divide the country and reap political benefits in the coming Lok Sabha election.
"This is a step taken to divide the country. This is a step by the BJP government, just ahead of Lok Sabha elections, to reap political benefits," Satheesan told ANI.
"We will strongly oppose this. We will make all efforts to oppose this legally as well. We will never support such steps that decide citizenship according to the religion of people," he added.
The ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) also protested the Center's notification of the rules of the CAA which enables its implementation. The alliance on Tuesday protested across the state over the Center's decision.
Meanwhile, the politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly opposed the CAA Rules framed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the notification issued on Monday.
"The CAA violates the secular principle of citizenship enshrined in the Constitution by linking citizenship to religious identity," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement.
CPI(M) further said that the rules have been so devised as to exclude the state governments from the process of identifying and enrolling persons for citizenship in their state. This has been done to exclude those state governments that have opposed the CAA itself.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notified the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019) on Monday. These rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, will enable the persons eligible under CAA-2019 to apply for the grant of Indian citizenship. The applications will be submitted in a completely online mode for which a web portal has been provided, stated MHA.
The CAA rules, introduced by the Narendra Modi government, aim to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants--including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians--who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014. (ANI)