DMK rallies against law, blames BJP, AIADMK for crisis

He demanded that the Centre should give citizenship status for Indian-origin Tamils and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in the state for the last three decades.

Stalin listed several pre-election promises of BJP and said the Modi government has failed to deliver on all these fronts and is, instead, busy “destroying this country into bits and pieces”.

Saying India is a diverse and secular Indian culture transcending faith, religion, language and ethnicity, he said, “The BJP is literally poisoning that diverse cultural situation, trying to change the character of this country.”

Maintaining that the Bill could not have been passed in Rajya Sabha had AIADMK voted against it, Stalin said, “This party played a major role in leading this country into chaos. India is burning now, and AIADMK is the reason.” He said if the BJP was “least bothered” about the cause of Lankan Tamil refugees in India, the AIADMK also turned a blind eye towards them. “They (AIADMK) made this compromise to continue their business of looting,” he maintained.

If the Citizenship Act was to protect the rights of people, Stalin said, the latest amendment was brought in to grab these rights from the people. He said: “I ask the BJP: was this law brought in to protect Indians or to uproot citizens from their basic identities? Are Muslims in India not Indian citizens? Are these Sri Lankan Tamils not (Indian) citizens?…”

Referring to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the DMK chief said, “You know we are not like (members of) this ‘Edappadi group’. We do not remain mute spectators when you destroy the basic ethos of this country. We belongs to the group ‘Thanthai Periyar’ (Tamil social reformer), C N Annadurai (founder of DMK) and M Karunanidhi (late CM and DMK leader). When there are so many crucial issues before them (Modi government) to address and resolve immediately, they were in a hurry to implement this Act instead of helping the people.”

Meanwhile, Madras University students continued their protest against the new citizenship law for a second day on Tuesday, even as police entered the campus. Defiant students said they will continue their agitation “through the night”.

Explained: Why this could be embarrassing time for AIADMK

The cause of Sri Lankan Tamils is a prominent issues in Tamil Nadu politics. So when AIADMK decided to support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, it had to automatically give up on the long-standing cause of over 1 lakh Lankan refugees living in 107 refugee camps in the state for three decades, as the new law has provision for giving Indian citizenship to “persecuted minorities” only from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

With opposition DMK expected to take full political mileage over the issue, this could be embarrassing for AIADMK, as party founder MGR and Jayalalithaa were empathetic to the cause of Lankan Tamil refugees.