Civil rights groups spearheading an agitation in Rajasthan against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on Saturday demanded that the Congress government clarify its position on the National Population Register (NPR) and stop its process scheduled to begin next month. The indefinite sit-in at the Shaheed Smarak here, inspired by Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh protest, has entered the 44th day.
The protests have also been replicated in several towns across the State. Held under the banner of the Samvidhan Evum Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan, the protest in Jaipur has witnessed the participation of women from the Walled City neighbourhoods and drawn the attention of passers-by with the rendition of poems, songs and slogans on different themes.
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Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot put in a surprise appearance at the protest on February 14 and questioned why the information on the birthplaces of parents was being sought for NPR. “I am not aware of my parents’ birthplace. If I am asked to furnish these details, I might be the first person to go to a detention centre,” he said.
Abhiyan’s convener Sawai Singh said at a press conference here since it was widely believed that the NPR would be the first step towards the preparation of the National Register of Citizens, the State government should step in to stop the clubbing of the NPR with the Census. “The people in Rajasthan will boycott the NPR survey unless the the Congress spells out its stand,” he said.
Association for Protection of Civil Rights president Paker Farooq said Home Minister Amit Shah had misled the country by stating in Parliament that no document would be required from people in the NPR survey and no entry of doubtful citizenship would be made. “The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, contains these provisions, which will be misused in the NPR exercise,” he said.
The Abhiyan members urged the State government to issue an order, along with its notification in the Gazette, that the exercise for preparing the NPR in its present form would not be started. “The Congress government should also inform the Centre that it will not cooperate in the process for updating the NPR,” Mohammed Nazimuddin, State president of Jamat-e-Islami Hind, said.
The State government was considering a move to challenge the CAA in the Supreme Court and a petition is likely to be filed on Monday. The Left Democratic Front government of Kerala had earlier challenged the CAA in the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution.
