Telangana seeks removal of references to any religion in Citizenship Act

The Telangana legislative assembly on Monday adopted a resolution urging the Centre to amend the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 by removing all references to any religion or to any foreign country.

Moved by chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, the government resolution on CAA, National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) also expressed concerns over the proposed implementation of NPR and NRC stating that this exercise could result in exclusion of large number of people.

Participating in the discussion on the resolution, chief minister Rao said his party, TRS, had already opposed the CAA in the Parliament while seven states had passed resolutions against the act and the implementation of NPR and NRC as these decisions are feared to cause immense hardships and uncertainty to the common people of the country.

"With Telangana being a multicultural cosmopolitan society, I deem it necessary to clearly state the government's position on CAA and other related actions of the Centre and hence moving this resolution requesting support from all the members in the house," the chief minister said during the discussion. The assembly has adopted the resolution after a brief discussion with the treasury benches, Congress and the MIM members backing the state government's position on the CAA.

The lone Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) MLA Raja Singh opposed the resolution and tore the copies of the resolution on the floor of the house.

While supporting the resolution moved by the government, the Congress legislature party(CLP) leader M Bhatti Vikramarka demanded that the state government should also bring out a legislation against the implementation of NPR and NRC in Telangana.  

In the resolution chief minster Rao alleged that there have been concerned attempts to tinker with the inclusive and non-religious nature of Indian citizenship through the CAA NPR and NRC. "Besides violating principles of equality, non-discrimination, secularism, this concerted attempt will also endanger the lives of vulnerable groups who do not possess adequate documentary proof of citizenship. More over there are serious questions as to the legality and constitutionality of CAA, NPR and NRC," he maintained.