A conglomeration of rights organisations on Monday urged people not to co-operate with enumerators for the National Population Register which the forum claimed was mentioned as the first step towards a pan-India NRC in a manual of the Union home ministry.
“If you want to stop the NRC (National Register of Citizens) across India, including Bengal, you first have to stop the NPR by way of non-cooperation with the enumerators coming to your house to collect data in the name of Census from April 2020,” Forward Bloc MLA Ali Imran Ramz said on Monday.
He was addressing a rally organised by the Joint Forum Against NRC on Rani Rashmoni Avenue here.
The rally culminated a 25-day campaign across the state in which members of the forum travelled from Kurseong to Bakkhali and then to Calcutta to mobilise opinion against the NRC, NPR and the CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill).
“Today when the CAB was placed in Parliament, the loudest protest was heard in Calcutta as our members hit the streets. We will carry on with the protest as we want abrogation of the 2003 Citizenship Rules and the Act, which is the core of all problems,” said forum convenor Prasenjit Bose.
According to the ministry of home affairs, the NPR is a register of usual residents of the country, which is prepared at the local, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the amendment made in 2003.
“It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR,” reads the Union government website. Bose has said this provision is draconian and that is why they want its abrogation.
CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Kannan Gopinathan who had quit the IAS and CPI (M-L) politburo member Kavita Krishnan also spoke at the rally.
Ramz alleged that chief minister Mamata Banerjee was talking about cooperation on the NPR, which “is the first step towards the NRC”.
“On our repeated demand, the Assembly had passed a resolution opposing the NRC. But what about the NPR? If she is against the NRC, she should immediately pass a resolution against the NPR, too,” the Bloc legislator said.
Kanhaiya attacked the Centre for its alleged plan to render citizens stateless by using a defective definition of “illegal migrants”. “If the government is identifying you as an infiltrator, it should be their responsibility to prove it. In no case does it turn to be your job to prove your Indian citizenship. Be aware of that,” he said.
Gopinathan urged the people to raise their voices against the NRC and the CAB. “All come and protest against the NRC and the CAB on the streets. If you stay silent, you are actually becoming an anti-national,” he said.
Krishnan said Bengal was much ahead on awareness of the NRC and the CAB and its ill-effects compared to the Hindi heartland and south India. “We cannot outsource our fight against the NRC and the CAB. We have to come out in the open to fight for our citizenship,” she said.
