Kerala govt 'sleeping' over "love jihad": Yogi Adityanath
Kasaragod, Feb 21: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday slammed the Left front government in Kerala for allegedly not taking any constructive steps to stop "love jihad" in the state.
Though the Kerala High Court had made remarks against love jihad in 2009, the state government had done nothing so far to check it, he claimed here.
However, his (Uttar Pradesh) government had brought out legislation to regulate "love jihad" and forceful conversions, Yogi said after inaugurating the state-wide "Vijay Yatra" led by BJP state unit president K Surendran ahead of the state assembly elections expected to be held in April-May.
"In 2009, the Kerala High Court had said the love jihad would turn Kerala into an Islamic state. Despite this, the state government is sleeping," the UP CM alleged.
"Love Jihad" is a term used by right wing activists to refer to the alleged campaign of Muslims forcing Hindu girls to convert in the guise of love.
BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have recently brought religious freedom laws to stop conversion through marriage or by any other fraudulent means.
Adityanath also criticised the Kerala government over the increasing COVID-19 positive cases and claimed that his state had effectively tackled the pandemic.
The 15-day-Vijay Yatra, covering all major constituencies in 14 districts, is seen as the official launch of the saffron party's poll campaign.
Various union ministers and the saffron party's popular leaders and star campaigners at the national level are expected to join the yatra in various days.
Union Minister Amit Shah is expected to inaugurate the finale of the yatra at the state capital on March 7, party sources said.
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SC seeks Centre, Assam's reply on fresh plea challenging CAA rules
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday sought replies of the Centre and the Assam government on a plea challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, meant to operationalise and regulate the process of grant of Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala took note of the submissions of a lawyer representing petitioner Hiren Gohain, a Guwahati resident, and issued notices to the state government and the union ministries of Home Affairs and External Affairs.
The top court also ordered that the fresh plea be tagged with those pending on the issue.
The lates plea on the hugely contentious issue said, “The uncontrolled influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Assam has caused huge demographic changes in Assam. The indigenous people, who were once the majority, have now become a minority in their own land.”
Recently, the bench, while refusing to stay the operation of the CAA Rules, asked the Centre to respond to the applications seeking a stay on their implementation till the apex court has disposed of the pleas challenging the validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Gohain, in his plea, said the CAA Rules, 2024 are “ultra-vires to the Constitution” as they are “palpably discriminatory, manifestly arbitrary, illegal and against the basic structure of the Constitution”.
“It is stated that the impugned Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 violates the petitioners’ fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 (right to equality), 15 (right against discrimination on basis of religion, race, caste etc), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), 21 (right to life and personal liberty) etc of the Constitution,” it said.
Gohain said he has filed the plea in his personal as well as in representative capacity of a majority of the indigenous people living in Assam and seeks enforcement of their fundamental rights.
Raising the issue of “uncontrolled" influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to Assam, the plea said it was not a communal issue.
“Neither it is a Hindu-Muslim or indigenous people v/s Bengali immigrant’s issue. Rather it is an issue of foreign infiltrators, be it Hindus or Muslims, who are inundating the land that for centuries has belonged to the indigenous people of Assam. In other words, it is an issue between Indians and non-Indians/ foreigners and one of grave importance for the entire nation,” it said.
“It is stated that according to the 2011 census the population of Assam was about 3.21 crores out of which only 1.34 crore people are indigenous Assamese. This figure includes the Assamese Muslims and indigenous people of the different tribes like Bodo, Missing, Rabha, Karbi etc.
Additionally, there are about 48 lakh people that comprise the tea tribes, it said.
"The sum total of the aforesaid two figures comes to about 1.82 crores. A major part of the remaining population of Assam essentially comprises Bengali speaking Hindus and Muslims and a minor part comprises Hindi/other language speaking people who have migrated from the other states of India,” the petition said.
With the unveiling of the rules on March 11, days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government kicked off the process of granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants - Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians - from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The rules came into force with immediate effect, according to a gazette notification.
The massively polarising CAA had sparked protests in various parts of the country in late 2019 and early 2020 over its alleged discriminatory provisions.
