The AIADMK’s decision to walkout of the Tamil Nadu Assembly ahead of the voting on the resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has once again put the spotlight on the party’s inconsistent stand on the issue. Although AIADMK leaders later claimed that they had walked out for a “different reason”, with former Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami citing the DMK government’s decision to disband a number of its schemes, it is clear that the opposition party that is an ally of the BJP did not want to lend its support to the resolution.
In December 2019, when Parliament passed the Bill, the AIADMK’s lone MP in the Lok Sabha and 11 MPs in the Rajya Sabha voted in its favour. In fact, the AIADMK’s support was crucial in passage of the Bill in the Upper House. With protests breaking out across India, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami was at pains to defend the AIADMK’s support for CAA. In the state Assembly he defended the law, stating that it would not take away the citizenship of any Indians, and would not affect minorities. When the DMK, which was in the opposition at the time, questioned why the state Assembly wouldn’t pass a resolution against CAA like many other states, EPS accused the party of misleading minorities, asking which minority would be affected by CAA?
But there were murmurs of discontent within the AIADMK, with several Muslim leaders suggesting it would hurt the party’s minority vote. Then, with less than a month to go for the 2021 Assembly election, the AIADMK did a U-turn- EPS promised to pressure the Union government to withdraw CAA if the party is voted back to power. The AIADMK had also included it in its manifesto ahead of the state election. Despite its poll promise catching its ally the BJP by surprise, EPS was once again quick to defend the party’s stand. “The AIADMK government will protect the minorities. We have announced that we will insist that the centre revoke the CAA. AIADMK is the only party that protects the interest of minorities. We will insist with the Union government,” he had said in March this year.
CAA enables illegal immigrants, or those who have overstayed their visas, who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from three countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan — to apply for Indian citizenship. CAA was criticised for using religion as a criterion for granting citizenship, even as it excluded Muslims from its ambit.
On Wednesday, September 8, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution against CAA. Chief Minister MK Stalin had alleged that it discriminates on the basis of religion, and is against secularism. The BJP’s four MLAs had staged a walkout, opposing the resolution.