Don’t enforce CAA; Asaduddin Owaisi tells Revanth Reddy; hails Jagan as friend, derides Chandrababu

HYDERABAD: AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has urged Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to ensure that CAA and NRC are not implemented in Telangana State.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Asaduddin Owaisi reminded that the Telangana Assembly had passed a resolution that census would be conducted in the State, but no activities related to the NPR and the NRC exercise would be allowed. He said it was a unanimous resolution, and since the government was a continuous process, Revanth Reddy should ensure that the resolution is implemented in letter and spirit.

Speaking about Andhra Pradesh politics, Asaduddin Owaisi announced that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was his friend, and he would remain so. He said now, with the TDP entering into an alliance with the BJP, the Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and Advasis had no option but to support Jagan Mohan Reddy, and they would play a decisive role in the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

He ridiculed TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu for rejoining the BJP-led NDA alliance. He pointed out that Naidu had called PM Modi a terrorist after he came out of the NDA last time. The same Naidu rejoined the NDA.

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The AIMIM Chief said that he was not against the census, as it was carried out under a separate Act. However, he said that the BJP Government was trying to link the census with the NPR, NRC, and CAA. "What the BJP did in Assam, it wants to do in the entire country," he said.

He pointed out that the Kerala Government had passed an order on December 20, 2019, staying all activities related to the NPR. On the same line, the Telangana Assembly passed a unanimous resolution. He urged the present Chief Minister to follow the resolution.

Asaduddin Owaisi announced that his party would go to the Supreme Court against the notifications issued by the BJP Government at the Centre for rules relating to the Citizenship Amendment Act.

He said that the CAA notification was a prelude to introducing the National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC). He referred to the speeches delivered by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Parliament, stating that the NRC and NPR would be implemented after CAA. He said the entire exercise was aimed at targeting Muslims across the country.

"BJP's main objective is to implement NPR and NRC in the country. This can be understood from the Supreme Court-monitored NRC conducted in Assam, where 19 lakh people whose names did not appear on the list were told that they were not citizens of India. There were both Hindus and Muslims in it. Now, under CAA, all Hindus will get citizenship, but about 1 lakh Muslims will be left out," he said.

He said that the Centre already had powers to grant citizenship or provide long-term visas to the migrants of other countries. However, the CAA was aimed at attacking the Muslims living in the country, although the BJP has been trying to convey that it was for giving citizenship and not taking it.

Asaduddin Owaisi said the CAA law, enacted by the Modi Government four years ago, was anti-constitutional. “You cannot make laws based on religion, as it violates the Right to Equality. There are several Supreme Court judgments on this," he said. He added that when White South Africa made a similar law, Mahatma Gandhi tore that law. He said he had even torn that CAA document in Parliament.