Congress Asks KCR For Special Assembly Session To Reject CAA, NRC

Former minister and senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir today demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao convene a special session of the Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution rejecting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizenship (NRC).

Shabbir Ali also urged civil society organizations to pressurize the Chief Minister to officially announce that he would not implement either the CAA or the NRC in the State.

Pointing out that the Chief Ministers of the States ruled by the Congress and the Left parties had already made similar announcements, Shabbir Ali said that the TRS had voted against the CAA in Parliament despite supporting the BJP government at the Centre since 2014, and should therefore have no hesitation in convening a special session of the Assembly and announcing rejection of the CAA and the NRC.

Shabbir Ali accused the BJP government at the Centre of attempting to create a communal divide in the name of granting citizenship to six minority groups from three neighbouring countries. He said that the BJP was trying to kill the very spirit of the Constitution by linking citizenship with religion.

He claimed that the CAA was inspired by the ideology of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who wrote a book named Hindutva in 1917. However, the idea was rejected by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Moulana Azad and other Congress leaders, and Dr B R Ambedkar penned a secular Constitution, he said. He alleged that the BJP was now trying to change the statute, clause-by-clause.

The Congress leader also condemned the police "brutality" on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University during the anti-CAA protests. He said that lakhs of students from 23 premier universities had come out in support of the JMI and AMU students to condemn the police "atrocities".

He claimed that the BJP's move to give citizenship on the basis of religion had no takers, and that anti-CAA protests had erupted across the country. He said that the Congress, which was fighting against the "unconstitutional" Act at the national level, would support all peaceful protests against the CAA and the NRC.