State Assembly Resolutions against the CAA

Valerian Rodrigues writes:

As we go to press, already four states in India—Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal—have passed resolutions against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 and asked the centre to withdraw it. They have also expressed their unwillingness to cooperate in gathering data for the National Population Register (NPR), if the information is connected to the National Register of Citizens (NRC). It is quite likely that some more states would add their voice to this dissent. While there are shared concerns in these resolutions, the distinct set of reasons that each state has highlighted are noteworthy: Kerala considers that the CAA has violated “the principle of equality, freedom and secularism;” Punjab has referred to the threat to national security that the act may make way for by facilitating infiltration; Rajasthan feels that discrimination is in-built into this law; and West Bengal has pointed out how the act has been the cause of unrest and widespread popular protest across the country and undermines the very foundation of a law-governed polity. Meanwhile, the central government seems to be keen on drawing up rules and guidelines to operationalise the CAA, and, given the scale of the opposition, may delink it from the NRC and NPR, and merely call for applications to be submitted for citizenship under the provisions of the act.