The Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammad Khan has welcomed the central government’s move to enact the Citizenship Amendment Act claiming that the government, through this Act, has upheld the promise made by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Congress to the people who were leading deplorable lives in Pakistan.
Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammad Khan on #CitizenshipAct: Government has kept the promise that Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit ji & Congress had made to people who were living deplorable lives in Pakistan. The foundation of Act was laid in 1985&2003, govt just gave a legal form to it. pic.twitter.com/xLRbcDVWae
— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2019
Khan further reasoned that the foundation if the Citizenship Amendment Act was laid in 1995 and 2003 and the BJP government has simply given a legal form to it.
Two days ago while speaking at an event in Mallapuram, Khan had said that the amendment is an “extraordinary solution” in the wake of minorities from neighbouring countries fleeing religious persecution. He had said that the percentage of minorities has gone down in the neighbouring countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, while it has increased significantly in India. “There are over 19 crore official Muslims in India. Everybody admits that the number stands at over 20 crore. At the time of partition, there were 17 per cent Hindus in Pakistan who are left with less than 1.7 per cent today. In Bangladesh, Hindus were 30 per cent, now they make of just 17 per cent of the total population, Where did they disappear?” he asked. He had added, “is not it an exceptional situation and it needs an extraordinary solution?”
The approval from the Kerala Governor comes at a time when widespread anti-CAA protests were triggered across the nation following the police crackdown on the lumpen students in AMU and Jamia Islamia universities protesting against the Bill.
Violence has been recurrent theme of these protests where the ‘demonstrators’ have blatantly indulged in acts of arson, vandalism and stone-pelting, thereby, inviting police clampdown. The rampaging mobs of protestors, from Delhi to Assam, Uttar Pradesh to Maharashtra have brutally assaulted the law enforcement personnel and caused extensive damages to public properties.
Amidst the ensuing violence, PM Modi had exhorted the students and protestors to see through the opposition propaganda and refrain from blindly opposing the Bill without going through its details. Union Home Minister Amit Shah too asked the protestors to go through the Bill first before joining the protest against it.
The Citizenship Amendment Act aims to grant citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Buddhists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who fled these countries and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
