Telangana could join growing list of states passing resolution opposing CAA: KCR

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, January 25

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) said on Saturday that his government was considering bringing a resolution against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act to the state assembly.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly called, said the Citizen Amendment Act was a “blunder” by the National Democratic Alliance government and that “India could never become ‘Hindu Rashtra’”.

He said his party was in touch with “like-minded” parties—a term that implies non-BJP political parties in the country—to build a national consensus against the citizenship law as well as the proposed National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.

“I am in touch with the Chief Ministers of other states that are opposed to the CAA, and leaders of like-minded parties. If necessary, I will take the lead and invite all of them for a meeting in Hyderabad soon to chalk out a course of action to fight against this regressive legislation.

KCR’s party, the Telangana Rashtriya Samithi, has 88 Members of Legislative Assembly in the 119-member House.

This development comes on a day when Rajasthan became the third state to pass a resolution against the law.

If Telangana Assembly passes such a resolution, it will join Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan to officially oppose the law.

This is the first time KCR has openly opposed the law despite the fact that his state has been witnessing protests since Parliament passed the legislation in December. Opposition leaders have criticised KCR’s silence, which several of them said was because of civic body elections.

KCR’s TRS swept the elections, winning 100 of 129 municipal bodies.

The contentious citizenship law offers Indian Citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Buddhists, but excludes Muslims—a decision that BJP’s critics have objected to. The critics argue that CAA, taken in conjunction with the contentious NRC exercise that the central government had previously and repeatedly endorsed could be used to target the country’s Muslim population.

Protests erupted in several parts of the country over the contentious law after the Parliament passed it in December. The protests have been largely leaderless.  After facing backlash, the central government has claimed that the CAA had nothing to with the NRC exercise, but critics use statements by made ministers, in particular, Home Minister Amit Shah, to claim that the two cannot be seen separately.

Critics have also opposed the proposed NPR exercise, which they see as a precursor to the NRC.