Like other Congress CMs, Kamal Nath says MP won’t implement citizenship law

Punjab’s Amarinder Singh and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel have also said they will follow the Congress’ stand against the controversial new law.

File image of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath | Photo: ANI

New Delhi: Amid a rising chorus of rebellion from non-BJP ruled states, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath Friday hinted that his state too would not implement the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

“We will do what other Congress-ruled states are doing,” Nath told women journalists at the Indian Women’s Press Corps in New Delhi. “The Congress has never implemented a divisive law.”

Nath’s statement comes a day after Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh said the Act was “divisive and unconstitutional” and “would not pass the state assembly where Congress has a majority”.

The controversial bill was cleared by Lok Sabha late Monday, with the BJP’s clear majority in the House ensuring a smooth passage. The Rajya Sabha passed the bill Wednesday, by a 125-99 margin, and was signed into law by President Ram Nath Kovind the following day.

The Congress has vociferously opposed the law, but failed to muster numbers in the Rajya Sabha to keep it from passing.

The law has sparked violent protests, especially in the Northeast, with the Army and the CRPF deployed to control the situation. Internet services have also been suspended in Assam.

Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan push back 

Punjab CM Singh, in a sharply-worded statement, said it was the duty of an elected government to safeguard the cherished values ingrained in the Constitution and not destroy them, adding he “would not let such a constitutional violation take place” under his regime.

“The Parliament had no authority to pass a law that defiled the Constitution and violated its basic principles and fundamental rights of the people of India,” said Singh in a statement issued by his office Wednesday. “CAB (is) ‘null and void’ on account of the fact that it was against the tenets and values contained in the Constitution.”

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel told news agency ANI Friday that “our stand won’t be different from what is being taken by the AICC”. He had told ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta at an Off The Cuff event last Saturday that he would not implement the National Register of Citizens as his state was “secure”.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot, also of the Congress, have been pushing back against the legislation by “questioning its intention”.