Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan on April 8 (Monday) refuted the charge that the Congress party’s election manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections was silent on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
Mr. Satheesan said the manifesto, released at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on April 5, promises that all laws made in violation of Constitutional principles would be repealed. This naturally applies to the CAA, he said.
Mr. Satheesan was speaking after inaugurating a discussion organised by the Congress election committee on the election manifesto released in New Delhi on April 5.
(Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, speaking in Alappuzha on April 6, had questioned the “silence” of the Congress manifesto on the CAA.)
Mr. Satheesan also drew Mr. Vijayan’s attention to page 8 of the manifesto which dealt with religious and linguistic minorities. The manifesto guarantees social justice and protection of the Constitutional principles, he added.
Later, speaking to the media, Mr. Satheesan asked that if the Chief Minister was truly concerned, why the State government was reluctant to withdraw the cases registered against anti-CAA protests. “The cases were intact because Mr. Vijayan wanted to appease the BJP,” he alleged.
Former KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, who presided over the event, described the manifesto as a ‘Magna Carta’ that re-dedicates the Congress’ commitment to the concepts of parliamentary democracy, secularism and justice for all.
Mr. Chennithala urged caution against “the attempts to weaken the Constitution, Constitutional bodies and the parliamentary system.”
Among other things, the Congress manifesto promises “reversal of the damage done by the Narendra Modi government”, repeal of laws passed without adequate parliamentary scrutiny, steps to uphold the independence of the judiciary, investigations into the electoral bonds scam and sale of public assets, in addition to increasing minimum wages under the MGNREGA to ₹400.
Economists Mary George and B. A. Prakash, technocrat G. Vijayaraghavan and senior Congress leaders, including UDF convener M. M. Hassan, were among those present.
