Will not implement CAA: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Saturday reiterated that his government would not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), saying his government would not favour such an “unfortunate situation” in the state.

His remark comes days after Home Minister Amit Shah said the process of granting citizenship to refugees under the CAA would begin after the process of Covid-19 vaccination ends. Shah had said the implementation of the law had to be kept in abeyance as a result of the pandemic.

“The country’s home minister recently said that the CAA will be implemented after the completion of the vaccination process. We have made our stand very clear. This government will not favour such an



unfortunate situation in the state. We will not stand with it and we will not implement it,” said Vijayan at the inauguration of the LDF’s northern region yatra in Uppala in Kasaragod district ahead of Assembly elections later this summer.

“Some people asked us, ‘how can you claim, as a government, that you won’t implement it?’ To them, I will say that if we said we will not implement it, we will not do it,” he added.

In December 2019, the Kerala Assembly had passed a resolution demanding the scrapping of the CAA, stating it was against the secular outlook and fabric of the country. Both LDF and UDF MLAs had voted in favour of the resolution with the lone BJP MLA dissenting against it.