Former MP CM Chouhan dodges query on Shah’s pro-NRC stand

Chandigarh Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and BJP national-vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Wednesday that the National Population Register (NPR)

Chandigarh Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and BJP national-vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Wednesday that the National Population Register (NPR) was not a back-door channel to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He, however, ducked pointed queries of reporters on Union home minister Amit Shah’s repeated pro-National Register of Citizens (NRC) stand.

HT Image

Chouhan was in town to meet party leaders and addressed a press conference with BJP city president Sanjay Tandon and Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher accompanying him. He also met party workers to create awareness on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and benefits of the NPR.

“The matter should be rested as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already clarified in his Delhi rally that there is no discussion on NRC right now,” he said, adding, “The Congress and the opposition have no issue to take on PM Modi. They are, thus, spreading false propaganda.”

“The BJP, however, will not let the ‘tukde-tukde’ gang harm the country. The party has decided to start a nationwide awareness campaign on the CAA and the benefits of the NPR,” said Chouhan. He added that the CAA did not violate right to equality. The act was about giving citizenship to minorities persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, not taking away the citizenship of those living here, he added. “Studies show the population of minorities in Pakistan was 23% after partition but it has been reduced to less than 3% now,” he claimed.

He questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s silence on nation-wide violence, saying that the CAA had been passed in Parliament with due process and diligence, after a debate.

“Isn’t Sonia Gandhi and her party misleading the people by fomenting unrest, hate and violence in the name of protests. Her silence on violence in the country clearly shows her tacit support for it,” he said.

He added that the CMs who were opposing the CAA should resign first, if they wanted to protest against laws that Parliament had passed after due process. According to the CAA, refugees from six religions (Muslims not among these) who came to India till December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given Indian citizenship.