In the tussle between the Kerala government and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan over the resolution passed against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state assembly, the CPI(M) has also joined in and lashed out at the Governor for his criticism against the resolution. CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Friday said that Governor Arif Khan is acting like BJP chief in Kerala.
In a statement issued by the CPI(M) on Friday, Kodiyeri said that according to the Supreme Court, a Governor cannot interfere in the proceedings of the state assembly. “The Governor’s ‘state BJP chief’ play, without understanding the Supreme Court verdicts and constitutional statutes has crossed all limits,” said Kodiyeri.
In the statement, Kodiyeri also asked the Governor to give an explanation on how the resolution passed against CAA by the state assembly can be called illegal. “The Governor has said that the anti-CAA resolution is illegal. Will he be able to point out which law was violated?” asked Kodiyeri.
The resolution passed last Tuesday termed CAA as unconstitutional and requested the Union government to repeal it. Reacting to it, Kerala Governor had said that the resolution has no legal or constitutional validity.
“In the past also, the state assembly has passed many resolutions but no Governor had interfered then. This is low-level political play. RSS should advise him that such actions cannot be effective in Kerala,” said Kodiyeri.
Kerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan also on Friday said that Governor’s stand questioning the legal sanctity of the resolution, was unfortunate.
"The statements made by the Governor were unfortunate. We did not cross any constitutional limits. But the amendment to the Citizenship Act is a clear violation of Articles 14 and 15," said Sreeramakrishnan.
The Speaker also said that those against the resolution should show the clause which states that the Assembly cannot pass such a resolution. "We have a responsibility to do this. We have the right to uphold the values of the constitution. Let them show us the clause that says state assembly can't pass resolution on this. I haven't seen any such clause in the Indian constitution,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Governor on Friday continued to question the legal sanctity of the resolution. "If the Kerala Assembly passes a resolution that America should invade Afghanistan, then they are only wasting time,'' said Arif Mohammed Khan, taking a dig at the non-BJP parties for adopting a resolution which "goes against the Constitution".
He also said that he has a "sacred duty to defend" the legislation as he was the representative of the President, who had given his assent to the law enacted by Parliament.
(With inputs from PTI)