The National Population Register must be dropped and the government should only carry out the Census, as queries regarding ancestry and other details have been added to the NPR by the BJP-led Central government with an evil intent, former Union Finance Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram said in Chennai on Sunday.
He said the intention behind seeking details of the ancestry of one’s parents and forefathers and other details in the NPR was to throw people out of the country if the government was unable to target their citizenship directly.
With the Citizenship (Amendment) Act seeking to divide people on religious lines, India’s reputation on the world stage had taken a beating, he said. “Almost every country in the world has started questioning the [rationale behind] CAA. In the last three months, India’s reputation has taken a beating,” he said.
“The Ministers are lying [when they say] that no Indian citizen will be affected by the CAA. If no one is going to get affected, why do you need a new law? Any law will benefit some and will affect some,” Mr. Chidambaram said while speaking at the ‘Save Constitution, Save Democracy’ meeting, organised by the Forum for Protection of Constitution at the Madras Kerala Samaj. “If no one is going to be affected, why are lakhs of people coming out on to the streets and protesting; why are the courts hearing the matter?” he asked.
“We will know who this Act will affect and who [it] will not affect at the courts. The NRC is definitely not needed, the NPR should be scrapped and the CAA should be cancelled or the Supreme Court should hold it invalid,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
Assam NRC
The Rajya Sabha member said the Assam NRC was a failure. “Nineteen lakh people were declared foreigners, of which 12 lakh were Hindus and 7 lakh were Muslims. Where will you evict them? How will you evict them?” he asked.
Mr. Chidambaram said nowhere in the world had illegal immigrants been evicted. “There are countries in the world that have stopped illegal immigration. But there is no country that has evicted 19 lakh people. If [Prime Minister] Mr. Modi has any doubt, he can check with [U.S. President] Mr. Trump on this. Mr. Trump has been saying illegal immigrants from Mexico must be evicted. Have they been able to evict even one [person]?” Mr. Chidambaram asked. He said people will oppose the CAA till their very last breath, and expressed the hope that the Supreme Court will uphold the Constitution and hold the CAA unconstitutional and invalid.
