Reacting to the notification implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M K Stalin said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government’s “divisive agenda has weaponised the Citizenship Act, turning it from a beacon of humanity to a tool of discrimination based on religion and race through the enactment of CAA.
“Union BJP Government’s divisive agenda has weaponised the Citizenship Act, turning it from a beacon of humanity to a tool of discrimination based on religion and race through the enactment of CAA. By betraying Muslims and Sri Lankan Tamils, they sowed seeds of division,” said Stalin.
He further said: “Despite staunch opposition from democratic forces like DMK, the CAA was passed with the support of BJP’s stooge ADMK. Fearing backlash from the people, the BJP kept the act in cold storage.”
“After DMK came to power in 2021, we passed a resolution in TNLA urging the Union Government to repeal the CAA to safeguard the unity of our nation, uphold social harmony, and protect the ideal of secularism enshrined in our constitution. Now, as elections loom, Prime Minister Modi seeks to salvage his sinking ship by cynically resurrecting Citizenship Amendment Act, exploiting religious sentiments for political gain. However, the people of INDIA will never forgive the BJP for unleashing this divisive Citizenship Amendment Act and their spineless lackeys, the ADMK, who shamelessly supported it. People will teach them a befitting lesson,” read X post of Stalin.
With the code of conduct for upcoming Lok Sabha elections yet to be effective, the Union Home Ministry notified the Citizenship Amendment Act’s (CAA) rules today.
This move in haste comes weeks after union home minister Amit Shah declared that the law would be implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.
The Citizenship Amendment Act was approved by Parliament on December 11, 2019. Even though the parliamentary guidelines state that the terms of an act must be published within six months of the legislation coming into force, it has not happened in the case of CAA till now, even after three years.
The Citizenship Amendment Act offers to provide citizenship to immigrants from six minority religious communities “except Muslims” from selected neighbouring countries Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014.
The criterion behind the selection of these countries and the eviction Muslims from the scope of the legislation was widely criticised since the beginning. Moreover, there were massive protests across the country after the amendment was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and received the presidential assent subsequently.
 chief M K Stalin said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government's "divisive agenda has weaponised the Citizenship Act, turning it from a beacon of humanity to a tool of discrimination based on religion and race through the enactment of CAA.){kind=link}