The Congress government in Punjab oversaw the passage of a resolution seeking the repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on Friday. The move makes Punjab the second state in the Union, after Kerala, to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Act. Punjab is also the first Congress-ruled state to pass such a resolution.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had consisently opposed the Citizenship Act and had reiterated the legislation would not be enforced in the state.
The resolution was introduced by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Braham Mohindra who declared the Citizenship Act was "against humanistic values and against secular values". Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal argued people in the state don't accept injustice and the state had a "long tradition of rejecting any discrimination based on communal ideas."
The resolution also expressed apprehensions about the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register. The resolution called on the Central government to "amend the forms documentation associated with the NPR to allay such apprehension in the minds of the people and only thereafter undertake work of enumeration under NPR".
(Story will be updated)
