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‘May create unnecessary tension’: BJP ally PMK doesn’t want NRC in Tamil Nadu
The reason cited by BJP’s ally PMK mentions that the state does not share any land borders with any country, thereby ruling out the need to implement NRC in Tamil Nadu.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu that voted for controversial changes to the Citizenship Act has distanced itself from the proposed National Register of Citizens, telling its alliance partners not to implement the citizens’ register in Tamil Nadu.
“There is no need for implementing the NRC in the state, which does not share any land borders with any country. It will only create unnecessary apprehension among the people,” read a resolution adopted at the party’s general council meet at Tindivanam, about 120 km from Chennai.
The PMK had contested seven Lok Sabha seats in last year’s national elections as part of the NDA’s rainbow coalition in Tamil Nadu but drew a blank. It only has one member in the Rajya Sabha, former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
Two other BJP allies - Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in Bihar and the Akali Dal in Punjab - have already opposed the NRC.
The PMK, which has some influence among the OBC-Vanniyar community, also contradicted the Centre’s insistence that there was no link between the citizens’ register and the National Population Register (NPR). It said the NPR was a precursor to the NRC and demanded that the Centre clear its misgivings with regard to these two measures.
The party has reasoned that the government already had all the data about Sri Lankan refugees in the country and there was no scope for people from other countries to sneak into Tamil Nadu.
“As such, there is no need for implementing a mammoth exercise like the NRC which is bound to create ‘unnecessary apprehension and tension’ among the people. Therefore, this meet appeals to the governments at the Centre and the State to give up the implementation of the NRC in Tamil Nadu,” the resolution said.
The party’s stance against the citizens’ register is at variance with its stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that its lone Rajya Sabha member and former minister Anbumani Ramadoss had supported.
The PMK had been batting for dual citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who have been here since the 1980s, after ascertaining their views. Espousing the Tamil cause, the party wanted the Centre to take up the matter with Colombo and facilitate dual citizenship for the Tamil refugees. According to the PMK, this would help them return to their homeland when the situation becomes normal in the island nation.
The PMK’s clear stand on NRC could bring the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, which also had voted for the CAA, under pressure.
Anwar Rahzza, the former MP and the AIADMK’s popular minority face, has already been nudging the party leadership to take an unambiguous stand against the citizens’ register and allay apprehensions among the minorities.
“The CAA and the NRC have created a lot of misgivings among the minorities. The party should not have voted for the CAA. Now, unless the AIADMK leadership comes clear on this, the desertion of minorities from the AIADMK cannot be arrested,” he said recently.
A group of Muslim parties, including the Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi (MJK), led by Thamimun Ansari, a legislator and ally of the AIADMK, had called for a march to the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday night.
