Under fire in Kerala for ‘silence’ on CAA, Congress promises to repeal law

A fortnight after the Congress released its election manifesto, which made no mention of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act that it had opposed vociferously, senior party leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said the CAA would be repealed in the first session of Parliament if the INDIA bloc comes to power.

Chidambaram, who headed the Congress’s manifesto committee, made the statement in Kerala, where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan — with an eye on the significant and influential Muslim vote bank — has been attacking the Congress over its “silence” on the contentious law. In Kerala, INDIA bloc allies Congress and the Left are up against each other.

Sources said a promise to repeal the CAA was part of the draft manifesto prepared by the Chidambaram-headed committee but was dropped later as the Congress leadership wanted to play safe and skirt issues which could lead to polarisation. In 2019, the party had come in for criticism from the BJP when its manifesto promised to repeal the colonial-era sedition law and “review” the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and Disturbed Areas Act.

But with the Left targeting the Congress in Kerala, where voting will take place in the second phase on April 26, Chidambaram’s statement is seen as an attempt to assuage the Muslim community.

While Hindi heartland parties like the SP and RJD have also played safe, making no mention of the CAA in their respective manifestos, the CPI, CPI(M) and other INDIA bloc parties like the DMK and TMC have promised to repeal the law in their manifestos.

Addressing the media in Thiruvananthapuram, Chidambaram said: “CAA will be repealed, not amended. We have made it clear and we have no doubt at all. CAA will be repealed in the first session of Parliament in which the INDIA alliance forms the government.”

He said the Congress manifesto had promised that all “anti-people” laws passed by the BJP-led government without proper parliamentary scrutiny and debate, especially those relating to workers, farmers, criminal justice, environment and forests, and digital data protection, would be thoroughly reviewed and changed.

“I have a list with me, of a large number of laws, in which we have mentioned that five laws would be absolutely repealed. One of the five laws is CAA. The list was drafted in the manifesto, which has already become long. It is a long list of 40 to 50 laws. I am the chairman of the manifesto committee, take it from me. CAA will be repealed,’’ he said.

He said Congress MP and the party’s candidate from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, had spoken against the CAA in Lok Sabha, and party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also said in Kerala that the Congress is opposed to the law.

Priyanka had also mentioned the CAA while campaigning in Assam a few days earlier. Addressing a gathering during a roadshow in Jorhat while campaigning for Gaurav Gogoi, the party’s candidate from the seat, Priyanka had said the CAA was against the Assam Accord, and asked people to vote for the Congress if they wanted to stop its implementation.

In Kerala, the Congress’s “silence” on the CAA has been a constant theme of Vijayan’s campaign speeches to counter Rahul Gandhi. “Congress is the only party that has not made its stand on CAA clear. In Kerala, why did the Congress withdraw from the joint protest against the CAA. Nowhere in the country, the Congress has conducted any protest over CAA. Rahul should make clear the reason behind this. The Congress is implementing the Sangh Parivar agenda. Rahul should say whether the Congress has Sangh Parivar attitude or secular attitude,’’ Vijayan said on Saturday.

Rahul, on his part, has been aggressively attacking the Chief Minister, accusing him of being hand-in-glove with the BJP.