Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi counters CM Ashok Gehlot on CAA, says Citizenship 'is subject of Centre and not state'

Udaipur (Rajasthan): Contradicting Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Assembly Speaker, CP Joshi has said that the Government of India has passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the state government is bound to implement it as per the Constitution.

“Under the Constitution, citizenship is a subject of the Centre and not of the state,” said Joshi at the annual award distribution ceremony of Mira Girls College in Udaipur on 7 February.

“State governments can make laws only on the subjects of the concurrent list like the Center made the law under the Motor Vehicle Act. The region of the state will not implement it, but the law is that if the central government has made a law in the corporate subject, no state can make a law against it,” he added.

However, chief minister Ashok Gehlot has repeatedly declared that CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be implemented in the state.

Protests have been going on in various parts of the country against the newly amended citizenship law since December, 2019.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and if they entered India on or before 31 December, 2014.