Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that while other states carry out ‘surveys in places of worship’, the state was carrying out surveys to better conditions.
“In our country, in many places, different kinds of surveys are happening. These are surveys that would divide people. There are reports that surveys are done on some places of worship to create communal tensions. We are also doing surveys here but that is not to divide people but related to the people. One survey is over, to find out the extremely poor families in our state,” he said, addressing one year celebrations of his government in Thiruvananthapuram.
His statement seemed to be a jibe on the recent Gyanvapi mosque controversy in Uttar Pradesh, wherein a survey was recently carried out to determine whether a temple existed at the premises earlier.
The CM also said the Citizenship Amendment Act will not be implemented in the state, adding that citizenship ‘could not be determined based on religion’.
“One section of people in the country are living in great concern. What was one of the most criticised and unacceptable moves in our country was determining citizenship based on religion. Our citizenship is not something that should be determined based on religion. When the union government said that they will go ahead with it, Kerala had said right from the beginning without hesitation, that we will not implement citizenship amendment act,” said Vijayan.
The CM said many had raised questions as to whether a state can say they they will not implement something that has been decided by the union government. “This constitution ensures secularism and no one can decide anything against the constitution,” he said.
“The state took this decision based on what is there in the constitution. At different stages many in responsible positions have talked about implementing CAA. During all these times Kerala has stood firm in its stand and we will continue that,” he said.
The Kerala Chief Minister right from the beginning has said that the state government will not implement CAA. In December, 2019, the state legislative assembly had passed a resolution against CAA. The congress-led UDF opposition was also in support of the resolution. Kerala was one of the first states to come out with such a resolution.
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