Notification of CAA Rules - Statements by Three Left Parties (March 12, 2024)

Communist Party of India

Date: 12.03.2024

Press Release

CPI on Notification of CAA Rules

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement today (on March 12, 2024) on the notification of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) amended rules:

The Union home ministry in a calculated move notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules as amended by Parliament in 2019 on March 12, 2024, claiming that this would enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in neighbouring countries to acquire citizenship in India.

It has been done on the day Supreme Court has directed the SBI to disclose details of electoral bonds.

The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India questioning the timing of the notification said that it is only to polarize the people on the basis of religion hoping to take advantage in the ensuing elections.

The Party pointed out that our Constitution never meant to identify our people on the basis of religion. Religion is never a criterion for citizenship and to decide on the eligibility of citizens.

The Party strongly decries the move solely meant to suit the ruling party’s ‘divide and rule’ policy. It is part of BJP’s sinister design to polarize people while protecting the crony capitalists and corporate houses to continue their loot.

Roykutty
Office Secretary

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Communist Party of India Marxist

Strongly Oppose CAA Rules

Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2024

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly opposes the notification of the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act [CAA]. The CAA violates the secular principle of citizenship enshrined in the Constitution by linking citizenship to religious identity.

The rules notified under the Act operationalizes this discriminatory approach towards Muslims coming from neighboring countries. The implementation of the Act is also linked to the creation of a National Register of Citizens raising apprehensions that citizens of Muslim origin will be targetted.

The rules have been so devised as to exclude the state governments from the process of identifying and enrolling persons for citizenship in their state. This has obviously been done to exclude those state governments which have opposed the CAA itself.

The timing of the notification of the rules more than four years after the adoption of the CAA and just days before the notification for the Lok Sabha election makes it clear that the BJP wants to use the implementation of the CAA for divisive and polarising purposes.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) reiterates its opposition to the CAA and its implementation and will continue with efforts to get this pernicious law annulled.

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CPIML Liberation

Notification of Rules for #CAA Signals a Major Political Conspiracy Ahead of 2024 Polls

The notification of rules for implementation of the patently unjust, discriminatory and divisive Citizenship Amendment Act passed in December 2019 signals a major political conspiracy just ahead of the notification of the 2024 poll schedule. The CAA, as indicated by Amit Shah in his famous ’chronology’ explanation, is a precursor to a nationwide NRC-NPR exercise aimed at stripping undocumented citizens of their citizenship rights. CAA clearly seeks to polarise citizens on the basis of their religious affiliation, deceptively promising citizenship to non-Muslim ’refugees’ while threatening Muslims with loss of citizenship and possible deportation. But going by the experience of the NRC exercise in Assam and the ongoing demolition drives across the country, the poor of every community including Adivasis and forest-dwellers are going to be particularly vulnerable.

The democratic opinion of the country and the equal citizenship and constitutional rights movement have rejected the CAA-NRC package as an assault on the Constitution. The notification of the CAA rules just ahead of the elections underlines the urgency of the people’s movement to defend the constitutional foundation of democracy and the need to vote out the Modi regime in the coming elections.

We appeal to diverse sections of the people fighting for their rights - the farmers fighting for legal guarantee to MSP, the working class fighting for labour rights, the employees for restoration of the Old Pension Scheme, the youth for secure jobs, women for freedom, safety and equal rights, the deprived people for caste census and enhanced reservation and diverse identities and regions fighting for constitutional safeguards and federal rights - to share the just concerns over the discriminatory and divisive CAA and make common cause with the equal citizenship movement. We must stand united and not let the Modi government and the BJP succeed in their design to polarise the people, divert their attention and derail the mission to defeat the fascist forces in the forthcoming elections.

 Central Committee, CPIML Liberation

[March 12, 2024 via X (Twitter)]