Thiruvananthapuram: Slamming Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan for his pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) stand, senior Congress leader M.M. Hassan on Monday said Khan is behaving like the state BJP President.
“Today the Kerala unit of the BJP has no president and from what the Governor has been speaking on CAA, it seems he is doubling up as the de facto state president of the Kerala unit of BJP,” said Hassan, a former state minister and a former President of the Congress party here.
Khan has time and again batted for CAA as it has been cleared by the Parliament and inked by the President, but at the same time, he has said that everyone can have their view and he also extended an invite to individuals or groups to come to his official residence for a discussion on it.
“I have to do what I have to do. The law has been passed and it’s my duty to abide by it. Those who criticize it are free to do so,” Khan told the media on Monday.
On the very day, the CAA was passed by the Parliament, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had categorically stated that it would not be implemented in the state and last Monday all political parties that have representation in the Kerala Assembly sat on a joint protest against the new citizenship law.
Vijayan has also called for an all-party meeting on December 28 to discuss and decide on what should be the future course of protests.
The CPI-M is mulling to form a human chain from the northern tip of the state to the southern tip, here on January 26 and as the first step towards that, is the all-party meeting.
But with State Congress President Mullapally Ramachandran making the party’s stand very clear that there would be no more joint protests, it remains to be seen on how the all-party meeting would go on Saturday.