The CAA Spanner

Ahead of the assembly poll in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK has been promising to press the BJP-steered NDA have been highlighting this promise—now officially a part of the party manifesto released on March 14—while wooing Muslim voters on the campaign trail. This, after all 12 AIADMK MPs, including one in Lok Sabha, had voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament. “Amma’s government will always protect the rights of minorities,” said Palaniswami in defence of the switch. Muslims account for nearly 6 per cent (5.86 per cent in 2011) of Tamil Nadu’s population. Peeved over his volte-face, the BJP election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, C.T. Ravi, asserted that the CAA will not be scrapped. Meanwhile, DMK chief M.K. Stalin, too, has been capitalising on the situation, saying his party will continue to urge the Centre to scrap the CAA and also confer citizenship on Sri Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in India.