By adopting a unanimous resolution against the just enacted Citizenship (Amendment) Act and asking for its repeal, the Kerala Assembly has set the trend for other States to follow. The ruling Left Democratic Front led by the CPI-M and the opposition United Democratic Front led by the Congress seldom see eye-to-eye on any serious issue, but on the CAA they are on the same page.

Even Rajagopal, the lone BJP member in the Kerala Assembly, could not muster the courage to vote against the resolution. Such was the charged atmosphere in the Assembly. The resolution cautions the BJP and its allies that the people at large will remain composed only as long as those in power at the Centre run the government on quasifederal lines envisaged in the Constitution and are mindful of the sensitivities of every religious, linguistic and ethnic group in the country.

There is nothing ‘unconstitutional’ about the Kerala Assembly resolution as claimed by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. It does not contest that Parliament alone has the power to pass any law with regard to citizenship. Nowhere in the Constitution it is mentioned that a State Assembly cannot pass such a resolution.

The Kerala Assembly passed the impugned resolution only to point out the Union government had trampled upon constitutional values held dear by the people. The Constitution is very clear that there should not be any discrimination on the basis of religion. The CAA violates Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution. The resolution is the expression of Kerala people’s anguish and disapproval of the CAA.

“Considering rising concerns among majority of people about possible discrimination based on religion under the CAA, which would also destroy the concept of secularism envisaged by the Indian Constitution, the Kerala Legislative Assembly requests the Central government to initiate measures to cancel the Act,” the resolution said.

Moving the resolution, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said constitutional values cannot be destroyed with a majority in Parliament and the Kerala government is committed to protecting the country’s secularism and unity in diversity. The National Population Register, the National Register of Citizens and the CAA initiatives of the BJP are designed to legalising its indefensible communal prejudices.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has made one thing crystal clear: The CAA would be followed by the NRC. The non-Muslims excluded from the citizenship register can take the CAA route to apply for and obtain Indian citizenship. That would leave Muslims ‘non-citizens’ to be sent to the detention camps that are being readied in all States under the direction of the Union government.

The student community understands the BJP’s devious scheme to declare as many Muslims possible as ‘stateless’ which explains the growing intensity of the agitation against the CAA.