The Bengal CPM has undertaken a door-to-door campaign to sensitise people to what questions to answer and which ones to skip when census enumerators come calling, as part of the party’s plan to build a people’s resistance to the BJP government’s move to draw up a National Population Register.

“The BJP-led government has inserted additional questions in the general census questionnaire and it is clear that it is pursuing the NPR agenda in a disguised manner…. We want the people to call the BJP’s bluff and that’s why we are helping them to resist any disguised attempt to collect data by refusing to answer the additional questions. The programme will be carried out across Bengal,” said Goutam Ghosh, a CPM state committee member in Birbhum.

CPM leaders are carrying out the door-to-door campaign in the evenings, during which leaflets in Bengali are being distributed among people with detailed explanations on why they should refuse to answer certain questions that the census enumerators are likely to ask.

The CPM has mentioned a set of seven questions related to census enumeration that people can answer. The questions are — name, relation with the head of the family, gender, date of birth, marital status, educational qualification and place of birth.

“These are common questions, which are needed for the census. But the BJP government has surreptitiously added 15 more questions that have nothing to do with the census. It is clear that they are trying to draw up an NPR, which is going to be the first step towards a nation-wide NRC,” said Apurba Chatterjee, a CPM district secretariat member in East Burdwan.

The 15 questions include occupation, names of parents and spouse, nationality, the time period of stay at the present address, permanent address, Aadhaar card number, ration card number, mobile phone number, birth dates and place of birth of parents, previous address, passport number (if any), voter card number, PAN number and driving licence details.