india

Updated: Jan 26, 2020 17:36 IST

Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was among the nearly seven million people who participated in a human chain on Sunday organised by the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) to protest the amended citizenship act and National Register of Citizens.

The 620-km long human chain was formed from Kasaragod in north Kerala to Kaliyakkavilai in the southernmost part of the state by the ruling CPI(M) led front on Republic Day.

Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been at the forefront of opposing the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and CPI leader Kanam Rajendran joined the protest in Kerala’s capital of Thiruvananthapuram.

“The human chain organised today against CAA has become a great wall… This law is a threat to the secularism of this country. Kerala has made it clear that CAA, NRC and NPR will not be implemented on this soil,” Vijayan was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Senior CPI(M) leader S Ramachandran Pillai was the first link of the chain at Kasaragod and MA Baby was the last in Kaliyakkavilai. The LDF claimed that around six to seven million people participated in the human chain.

The human chain was formed at 4pm following which the preamble of the Constitution was read out. Participants later took an oath to protect the Constitution from the “attempts of the central government” to destroy it.

Many prominent personalities were also a part of the chain.

The state assembly passed a resolution in December last year stating CAA is against the secularism envisaged by the Constitution and Kerala was also the first state to challenge the contentious act after it moved to the Supreme Court earlier this month.

The LDF and Congress headed United Democratic Front (UDF) opposition came together to pass the resolution at a special session of the House.

Vijayan had also written to 11 chief ministers urging them to come together to oppose the citizenship act.