Piyush Goyal asks K Chandrasekhar Rao not to politicise CAA

Hyderabad: Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said no state government can oppose laws that are passed by Parliament. It is unfortunate that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao under the influence of MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi was insulting the Constitution by not abiding by the laws.

“We request KCR not to indulge in petty politics to appease minorities,” Mr Goyal said at a meeting in the city on the stand taken by Telangana state on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao has previously stated that the state Assembly will pass a resolution against the CAA.

Mr Goyal urged the state government not to politicise the CAA and hoped that “wiser counsel would prevail” in taking a decision.  

“The CAA has nothing to do with the citizenship of the rest of Indians, it is just a process to include persecuted minorities from the neighbouring Islamic countries who are staying in India as refugees,” the minister said.

The minister claimed that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had never differentiated people based on religion.  The main agenda was ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, he said. “When giving cooking gas and electricity to everyone, have we ever asked the religion of the people and differentiated them? No. We are not against any religion,” Mr Goyal said.

Though minister K.T. Rama Rao had said at a recent meeting in New Delhi that the state government and the Centre should work together, it’s the state that is not cooperating with the Centre, Mr Goyal said.

He asked why the state government was reluctant to implement Central government schemes like Ayushaman Bharat and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.