The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has given a fresh twist to Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. In an affidavit in Supreme Court, it has held that it’s discriminatory to exclude Tamil refugees from CAA’s purview and sought the Act be declared null and void as it’s unconstitutional and “destroys the basic fabric of secularism.”

Besides, it covers only 3 countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh) and covers only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christian communities, leaving out Muslims, who had suffered persecution and thus is ‘highly discriminatory and manifestly arbitrary’.

The DMK is peeved at Indian origin Tamils, who fled Sri Lanka due to persecution and are now in the country as refugees, being left out of the Act’s ambit. The Centre’s silence, it says amounts to ‘step-motherly behaviour.’ Being Stateless, they have been denied jobs in government services, the private sector and the right to property and voting, thus living “in constant fear of deportation and an uncertain future.”

Elaborating that Tamils have faced “rampant persecution” due to minority status since Lanka’s independence from British rule, the affidavit claims 3,03,076 people arrived in India as refugees from 1983 to 2010 in four phases and as of January 2010, 4,61,631expatriates were registered.

Will Centre take the bait, given it desperately needs a southern outreach? 

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