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All-India NRC irrelevant, has no justification: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who heads a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party, said he was ready for a debate on any issue that has created turmoil including Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday called a proposed pan-India National Register for Citizens (NRC) unwarranted and reiterated there was no question of implementing it in his state while citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarification there had been no discussion on creating it nationally.
“I have already said that there is no question of NRC in Bihar. It was never visualised...[nationally] nor does it have any justification. It was only for Assam as part of the Assam Accord during the tenure of former Prime Minister the late Rajiv Gandhi,’’ he said.
Kumar was responding to Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav’s demand for debate in the Bihar assembly on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the NRC and the National Population Register (NPR). Yadav insisted the three were interlinked.
Kumar, who heads a coalition government with the Bharatiya Janata Party, said he was ready for a debate on any issue that has created turmoil including Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“It [NRC] is not also relevant and the Prime Minister has also clearly said it. I do not think it can unnecessarily be initiated across India,” he added, referring to Modi’s statement last month that there had been no discussion on creating the nationwide NRC. Opposition parties have pointed out Modi’s statement contradicted home minister Amit Shah’s pitch for a nationwide NRC.
The passage of the CAA last month to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before 2015, have triggered protests across the country.
Opponents of the law insist it is discriminatory and unconstitutional as it leaves out the Muslims and links faith to citizenship in a secular country. They say it could result in the expulsion or detentions of the Muslims unable to provide the documentation if the law is seen in the context of a proposed pan-India NRC.
The protests first erupted in the North-east, especially in Assam, where residents fear the CAA could result in a fresh influx of outsiders. Opponents of the CAA in the Northeast insist it violates the 1985 Assam Accord, which was signed following an agitation for the detection and deportation of undocumented immigrants irrespective of their faith. The accord set March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for the detection. A process in line with the accord was carried out in Assam and led to the exclusion of around 2 million people from the NRC last year.
Speaking about the NPR, Kumar said all states agreed to it in 2010. “If there are any apprehensions regarding new questions being asked in it, I will look into it after January 19...” He said he was busy with an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about the climate crisis. “I am not focusing on any other issue right now.”
The NPR is a comprehensive biometric database of all “usual residents” in India as opposed to the Census, which is a database of households. It has generated controversy with the Opposition parties contending the exercise is linked to the National Register for Indian Citizens (NRIC) aimed at identifying undocumented immigrants. The government has in the past described NPR as the first step towards a nationwide NRC. It now maintains that there is no link between the two and that an all-India NRC is not immediately on the anvil.
At least two states, Kerala and West Bengal, have announced they will not participate in the NPR exercise. At least 10 chief ministers have said they will not participate in an all-India NRC whenever it is rolled out.
HT on Monday reported language information may be sought under NPR is for the first time even as this information was previously collected under the Census exercise. NPR was created in 2010 and updated in 2015. On both occasions, officials said, data on mother tongue was not collected under the exercise. In addition to the mother tongue, NPR 2020 will also seek information on the place and date of birth of a resident’s parents, apart from nationality.
The section on mother tongue is not in the NPR 2020 form, but the NPR manual prepared to train enumerators has a separate section called, “Code for Mother Tongue”.
Kumar said the process of the census would start in four or five months, but the preparations for it had begun. “I have always advocated caste census, as it has not been done in India after 1930. In the census, there is data about different religions and SC and ST [Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes], but there should be a clear picture of other castes also. That is also important,” he said during a special sitting of the Bihar Assembly called for the ratification of the Constitution’s 126th amendment to extend the reservation for SCs and STs by another 10 in state assemblies and Lok Sabha.
Yadav earlier called the NPR the first step towards the NRC.” We all will have to give proof that we are the citizens of the country and it is time to rise above personal and political interests and think about national interest.”
He sought to know whether Kumar agreed with his Janata Dal (United) colleagues, Pavan Varma and Prashant Kishor, who have opposed the party’s move to vote in favour of the CAA in Parliament.
BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said that there has been no initiative on NRC so far. “CAA has been passed by the Parliament. It will be implemented in all the States including Bihar. We are obliged to Nitish Kumar ji and all the NDA leaders for supporting it,” he added.
