Anti-CAA protests: Tamil Nadu government holds talks with Centre

Amid massive protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Population Register (NPR) across the state, Tamil Nadu government on Monday rushed two senior ministers to New Delhi to meet Home Minister Amit Shah to apprise the situation and discuss the sensitive issue.

Even as two senior ministers met Shah in New Delhi, BJP General Secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu P Muralidhar Rao held discussions with Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at his official residence here on Monday evening.

Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar and Electricity Minister P Thangamani, close confidants of Palaniswami, rushed to New Delhi and submitted a letter written by the Chief Minister to Shah. Though government officials were light-lipped on the contents of the letter, speculation was rife here that the AIADMK dispensation had sought exemption from NPR for the time being.

Government sources indicated that CAA and NPR was the point of discussion between the ministers and Shah. However, there was no clarity on whether exemption to conduct NPR exercise will be sought.

Sources said Rao met Palaniswami over the CAA and NPR during which the Chief Minister explained his party’s stand vis-à-vis the controversial legislation and apprised him of the political situation in the state.

The AIADMK government is under tremendous pressure to not implement the CAA and NPR in Tamil Nadu. Opposition parties have demanded that the assembly pass a resolution rejecting CAA and resolving that NPR will not be implemented in the state.

Spontaneous protests have been breaking out in the state since December with various Muslim organisations coming onto the streets. Women of Washermanpet area in Chennai have been holding a protest on the lines of Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh for about a fortnight now.