Pinarayi Vijayan trying to adopt 'good boy' image in front of PM, implement CAA and NPR secretly, claims Kerala Congress leader

Thiruvananthapuram: Days after the Left government in Kerala moved the Supreme Court against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Congress on Friday alleged the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was trying to implement the controversial Act "secretly" in the southern state. Though Vijayan was opposing the CAA in public, he and his government were going ahead with the steps to implement the controversial Act, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala said at a press meet.

"The chief minister should end his attempts to make political gains in the name of CAA. Instead of cheating people, he should ensure that the Act is not being implemented in the state," he said. Vijayan, who used to vehemently criticise the RSS and the Centre in all public meetings, was showing reluctance to stop the procedures in connection with the NPR, the cardinal part of the CAA, Chennithala alleged.

"The state government is now going ahead with plans to implement the CAA at any cost. Though they are opposing the CAA and NPR in public, the government is going ahead with the official steps to implement that in the state," he said. While opposing the CAA in public, the chief minister was trying to adopt a "good boy" image in front of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah secretly, he said.

As part of the plans to implement the CAA, the Vijayan government had already taken steps to implement the National Population Register (NPR) in the state, the senior Congress leader alleged. When he had protested against this, the government had last month cancelled the order, issued by them in July-August months in connection with the NPR, Chennithala claimed.

But, before cancelling this, another order had been issued on 12 November to implement the NPR along  with the Census, he alleged quoting records. The particular order was aimed at implementing the NPR along with the Census in April-May this year and it was yet to be withdrawn by the Left government, he added. So, tahsildars and other government officials were going ahead with further steps to implement it, the Opposition leader said quoting media reports about the Thamarassery Tahsildar who had sought availability of teachers to complete NPR procedures. Chennithala also alleged that the CPM-led government was registering fake cases across the state against those protesting against the CAA.

January 17, 2020 at 06:32PM