To pass three resolutions in the Assembly on Tuesday, with not a single member opposing, looked like an impossible feat.
Two resolutions were strongly-worded impassioned exhortations against the perceived anti-minority stance of the Narendra Modi government. The UDF and the LDF had already agreed to join hands but the lone BJP MLA O Rajagopal stood in the way. It cannot be called unanimous if Rajagopal dissented. In fact, even before the first resolution was taken up, Rajagopal had stood up and raised his objection. But as it turned out, all the three resolutions were passed unanimously.
The first resolution was a statutory resolution which the House was duty-bound to pass unanimously. There was nothing objectionable about it either for any political party.
It was to ratify the Constitution Amendment Bill, the 126th Amendment, which proposes to extend the SC/ST quota in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by another 10 years. The SC/ST quota, as a result, will now be valid for 80 years. Before the amendment, it was 70 years. No one had anything against this.
But all of a sudden, this resolution with built-in unanimity threatened to be divisive. Congress member K C Joseph proposed an amendment that would have clearly bothered the BJP member. Joseph wanted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to add as the last line the State's severe objection to the Centre's “unjust” move to deprive Anglo Indians of their special representation. The Anglo Indian quota, unlike the SC/ST's, was not extended from 70 to 80 years.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, too, said Joseph's amendment should be seriously considered. “The Union Law Minister (Ravi Shankar Prasad) had told the house that there were only 296 Anglo Indians in the country. Truth is there are 3.47 lakh Anglo Indians. The Law Minister was clearly misleading the House. This is an assault on minority rights,” Chennithala said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had a more persuasive argument. “We are against depriving Anglo Indians of their quota and for that we have a second resolution. If we add our objection to this resolution, it will look as if our support to the SC/ST quota is conditional,” he said. And then, pointing to Rajagopal, the Chief Minister said: “It is also important that this resolution is passed unanimously.” The message was well taken and the resolution was passed unanimously.
The Anglo Indian issue was taken up as the second resolution. The resolution wanted the Anglo Indian quota, too, to be extended by 10 years. When Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan asked members supporting the Bill to raise their hands, O Rajagopal too was seen raising his hands in support along with the others. So the second resolution was also passed unanimously. It is still not clear whether Rajagopal put his hands up without thinking.
The most important political resolution, against the CAA, was then taken up. The LDF and UDF members tore into the BJP. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were ridiculed using the choicest words. Revolutionary Socialist Party's (RSP) Kovoor Kunjumon called Modi and Shah dinosaurs. Muslim League M K Muneer called the duo “brainless Siamese twins”.
The right wing's ideological beacons M S Golwalkar and V D Savarkar, too, were subjected to intense ridicule. The Chief Minister said Golwalkar wanted Hitler's “race purity” theory, which led to the extermination of 64 lakh Jews in Germany, to be implemented in India. Many members said while nationalists like Bhagat Singh bravely courted death, Savarkar “licked the boots of the British” to get out of jail.
When it was his turn to speak, Rajagopal did not respond to any of these withering charges. He said no one had ever said Muslims would not be given citizenship. “Anyone who accepts and respects the culture of India would be offered citizenship,” he said. Rajagopal also said it was for narrow political gains that people were spreading the lie that Muslims would not be given citizenship.
Finally, when the Speaker wanted members who supported the resolution to raise their hands, everyone did except Rajagopal. The Speaker then flipped the question. “Those who oppose the resolution can raise their hands,” he said. No one did, not even Rajagopal.
This allowed the Speaker to declare that the anti-CAA resolution has been passed unanimously.
