Telangana cabinet rejects Citizenship Act, asks Modi to revoke it; Anti-CAA resolution in assembly next

The Telangana cabinet of K Chandrashekar Rao has requested the Narendra Modi government to abrogate the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Rao on Sunday evening said that CAA would lead to discrimination based on religion while granting citizenship and “thereby jeopardises secularism as envisaged in the Constitution.”

The cabinet meet has also decided in favor of a resolution to this effect in the state assembly the way Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal assemblies have passed in last few weeks.

“The cabinet has appealed to the union government not to discriminate based on religion for according Indian citizenship. It requested that all religions should be treated as equal before the law,” a CMO official said, after a marathon meeting at Pragathi Bhavan – the CM’s palatial office cum residence.

Rao had revealed such intention last month. Speaking to the media on Telangana municipal poll results on January 25, when his party TRS won a vast majority civic bodies in the state, Rao said that he is in touch with leaders like Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over CAA and that he proposes to convene a conclave of CMs in Hyderabad, to discuss their plan of action.

Earlier this month, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation – where TRS and AIMIM elected representatives form the overwhelming majority - adopted a resolution against the CAA, while appealing the Centre to revoke it. GHMC thus, reportedly, became the first such civic body in the country to vote against the CAA.

“We supported Article 370 abrogation in national interest, but I told home minister Amit Shah that we, an out and out secular party, cannot support a prejudiced law,” Rao had said earlier. The TRS had voted against the CAB in Parliament.

“CAA is 100 percent a wrong law, a wrong thinking on part of the central government," Rao had said adding – “It is a law the apex court should strike off.”

“Are Muslims not our people, why discriminate? Why cannot we live together,” questioned KCR, terming the CAA, NRC as diversional tactics of the BJP from burning issues. “Economy is struggling; millions have lost their jobs.”

In other decisions, Rao’s cabinet has decided to organize a 10 day Pattana Pragathi programme beginning February 24 in all the towns and cities in the state. The programme is to “lay a strong foundation for best urban living with cleanliness, good sanitation and greenery.”