Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Sunday said that protests against the amended citizenship law can be ended if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah declare that they will not bring the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and will not ask the birth-place of parents of people under the National Population Register (NPR).
“Protests can be defused if Narendra Modi and Amit Shah say — “we are dropping the idea of NRC’, that they will no longer ask NPR enumeration to go to every door asking – ‘where your father and mother were born’ and ask for documentary proof. But they (PM Modi and Amit Shah) are not prepared to give all those assurances and it says about their intent. Their intention is very much to identify people living in India,” Tharoor was quoted as saying by ANI.
The protests against the citizenship law are still happening in parts of the country. The opposition too is against the law and calling it anti-minority. Some opposition leaders including BJP allies have even declared that they will not implement the law in their states. They say that the law becomes discriminatory when combined with proposed NRC.
The central government, however, has repeatedly assured the people that the amended citizenship law has nothing to do with the Indian Muslims. Prime Minister Modi recently said that the government was yet to decide on NRC and the citizenship law was not in any way connected to the NRC.
Earlier this month, JD(U) vice-president Prashant Kishor said that his party will not implement CAA in Bihar. The JD-U, which is in an alliance partner of BJP, had voted in favour of the bill in Parliament. However, chief minister Nitish Kumar has said that there is no need for NRC in the country.