Citizenship can't be defined on basis of one's religion, CAA violates Constitution: Sitaram Yechury

Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday said that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) violates the Indian Constitution and citizenship cannot be defined on the basis of a person's religion.

"In Banaras, the entire CPM's District Committee has been arrested and 69 other people have also been arrested out of which only 14 are Muslims. This situation arises because Indian youths are rising in defence of our Constitution. CAA violates our Constitution because in our Constitution citizenship cannot be defined on the basis of the religion of a person," said Yechury.

Yechury, who was addressing the students at Osmania University here today, said: "Today if anyone protests against the government or its policies, he will be termed as an anti-national We are protesting against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). It is an expression of patriotism. Young generation wants to defend India. They are the future of India," he added.

Earlier today Yechury said that the Chief Ministers of as many as 13 states have refused to implement the NRC.

"The Chief Ministers of 13 states have said 'no' to NRC. We appeal to them to say 'no' to NPR also. Two of them have already done this, which are Kerala and West Bengal. On this issue, West Bengal Chief Minister seems to be on the same side," said Yechury.