Six of the 20 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Kerala opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 while participating in the debate held after it was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on December 9, 2019.
Those who spoke against the Bill in the debate included five MPs belonging to the United Democratic Front (UDF), and A.M. Ariff, the lone MP of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from the State, in the 17th Lok Sabha. The MPs of UDF who opposed it included E.T. Mohammed Basheer, Shashi Tharoor, N.K. Premachandran, P.K. Kunhalikutty, and Thomas Chazhikadan, according to data compiled by the non-profit PRS Legislative Research.
Anto Antony of the UDF had opposed the Bill after raising it as a matter under rule 377 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha on February 4, 2020. Congress MP V.K. Sreekandan had asked two unstarred questions on the Bill on February 2, 2021 and March 23, 2021 respectively. He also introduced a Private Members’ Bill titled ‘The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2023 (Amendment of section 18)’ on August 4, 2023.
The data was analysed after the statement made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his address at the anti-CAA rally held in Kozhikode on March 22 that Mr. Ariff was the only MP from Kerala who raised his voice in the Lok Sabha against the amendment.
Opposing the Bill, Mr. Basheer of the Indian Union Muslim League said in his speech on December 9, 2019 that the government should not try to make any tag on secularism. “It is the soul of the nation. If we make India for a particular religion, that is against the spirit of it. India is not of Hindus, Muslims, or Christians; India is of Indians,” he added.
Mr. Tharoor said, “The Bill was not just an affront to the basic tenets of equality and religious non-discrimination that have been enshrined in our Constitution, but also an all-out assault on the very idea of India that our forefathers gave their lives for during the freedom struggle.”
Mr. Premachandran said that the Bill violated the basic structure and features of the Constitution envisaged in the Preamble of the Constitution as entitlement of citizenship based on religion is against the secular fabric of the country.
Mr. Ariff pointed out that the government was trying to divert people’s agitation against it due to their anti-people policies and the impact of economic slowdown, which are burning issues. Mr. Kunhalikutty blamed the government for trying to divide the Hindus and Muslims. There will not be an end to this, he said. Mr. Chazhikadan asked why Myanmar, a neighbouring country with the worst incidents of religious persecution in decades in relation to the Rohingya crisis, was excluded from the purview of the Bill.
Raising the issue when matters under Rule 377 were allowed on February 4, 2020, Mr. Antony alleged that the government is trying to separate its citizens on the basis of religion, which is against the Preamble of the Constitution. Through an unstarred question on February 2, 2021, Mr. Sreekandan asked the Minister of Home Affairs whether the government had plans to implement the CAA soon.
