Hyderabad: Though the Telangana Rashtra Samiti had voted against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in Parliament, it is left with no option but to enforce the legislation in the state.
TRS politburo member and the state Planning Board vice-chairman B. Vinod Kumar on Saturday indicated that the government’s options were very limited. It is a Central Act under the Union List of 7th Schedule of the Constitution, he pointed out.When Mr Kumar was addressing the second conference of the All India Peace Solidarity Association, CPM leader Tammineni Veerabhadram demanded that he make a statement that the Citizenship Amendment Act would not be enforced in the state.
Responding to this, Mr Kumar said the statement of chief ministers of five states — West Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh — was political. The Citizenship Amendment Act is under the domain of the Centre and the states would not have any role in it.
He said that the state governments could delay the police verification process, but the chief ministers could not say that they would not enforce the Act in their states.
He alleged that the BJP government had intentionally enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act and the legislation was against the spirit of the Constitution. It was an ill-intended legislation and the economic slowdown was not the reason for enacting it, Mr Kumar said.
He said that according to the the Citizenship Amendment Act, Muslim refugees coming from Islamic countries to India would not get citizenship and this provision was against the principles of secularism. He felt that the Citizenship Amendment Act would infringe on the fundamental rights of citizens and urged the Supreme Court to intervene.
