NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JAN 24
The Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) led by the principal opposition party DMK in the State will undertake a massive signature campaign across the state against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizenship (NRC).
“We will meet the people of Tamil Nadu and undertake a massive signature campaign from February 2 to 8. Once we complete the campaign, we will meet the President of India and hand over the signatures to him,” DMK president M.K. Stalin told reporters after a meeting of the alliance party leaders at Anna Arivalayam that lasted over two hours.
Resolutions demanding that the CAA and NRC not be implemented and that the Tamil Nadu government announce that it would not implement the NPR in the State were passed at the meeting.
When asked about Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the CAA will be implemented despite protests across States, Mr. Stalin said, “Amit Shah is saying that. We are opposing it. We will continue to oppose it and are taking efforts to ensure there will be a proper resolution to it.”
“BJP turning entire country as protest zone to fulfil its poll promises’’
The SPA held that the BJP, in order to fulfil its election manifesto, was dangerously turning the entire country into a protest zone. “The NPR manual that has been published, gives rise to fears that the NPR exercise is entirely the base step for the NRC,” the resolution said.
The resolution also blamed the AIADMK and the PMK for the CAA crisis in the country. “If the BJP has created a situation where every citizen has to stand in a queue to prove his or her citizenship, the first and foremost reason is that the AIADMK and the PMK voted in favour of the bill in the Rajya Sabha,” it said.
The parties also demanded that the AIADMK immediately convene a Cabinet meeting and pass a resolution that NPR would not be implemented in Tamil Nadu. The SPA also urged people not to share any details at the time of the national census programme.
