Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday strongly condemned the police action on people protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
“It is the union government's fallacy that democratic protests can be thwarted by detaining people and political leaders. The National Democratic Alliance government has been using brute force - that was not used even during the emergency - to quell protests. The government has denied permission to Left parties and students of Jamia Milia Islamia to hold protests. The government has been detaining protesters everywhere. The internet and mobile phone services have been disrupted in the national capital,” he wrote.
Pinarayi wrote that people's ire can be doused using threats. “It is foolish to think so. The government should stop attacking universities and the students. It should not trample constitutional values and citizen's rights. It should realise that people's movements were never defeated by imposing prohibitory orders, restricting movements, arrests or detention. The government should abolish the Citizenship Amendment Act immediately.”
He also condemned the detention of CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechuri, Politburo members Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, CPI general secretary D Raja and historian Ramachandra Guha and saluted all protesters.
“I salute all those who volunteered to protect India's independence, secularism and democracy. By organising a protest of all political parties recently, Kerala announced that the state will take the lead to protect the constitutional rights and secularism,” he said.
