A protest was organised at the Arts Faculty on North Campus on Wednesday against the amended Citizenship Act, the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Speaking at the protest venue, author Arundathi Roy claimed that the NPR would serve as a database for the NRC and asked people to oppose it by furnishing wrong names and addresses.
She claimed that NCR was against the Muslims of the country and that those conducting the survey would visit the homes of people in the garb of taking names for the NPR and then use the data to create a database for the NCR. “We need to fight it [NPR]. When they visit your home for NPR and ask for your name, give them some different name, and your address as 7, Race Course Road [the PM’s residence]. A lot of subversion will be needed,” Ms. Roy said.
Protesters read out the Preamble of the Constitution and said that they would fight against any attempts to change it. Students also raised slogans against the BJP government, and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were issuing different statements on NCR and could not be trusted.
The gathering also condemned police brutality to suppress peaceful protests. The protest call was given by the Joint Committee For Action Against CAA/NRC.
The Union Cabinet had on Tuesday approved ₹3,941.35 crore for updating the NPR, which is a list of “usual residents” of the country. A “usual resident” is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the last six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.
The data for NPR was collected in 2010 along with the house-listing phase of Census of India 2011. The data was updated in 2015 .
Ms. Roy also accused PM Modi of telling a “lie” at his Ramlila Ground rally on Sunday that his government never said anything about the NRC process and that there are no detention camps in the country.
“He told the lie knowing that it will be caught but still he lied because he has the media with him, which will not question him,” she added.
