’61 MLAs don’t have birth proof’: Delhi Assembly passes resolution against NPR, NRC

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, Mar 14, 2020: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. "61 out of 70 members don’t have birth proof," Kejriwal said .

The Delhi Assembly on Friday passed a resolution against the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requesting the Centre to withdraw them, Yahoo reported.

 

"I don’t have proof of birth. My wife and my parents don’t possess it either. Only my kids have. My entire Cabinet doesn’t have proof of birth," CM Kejriwal said during the one-day special session that was called to discuss the NPR and NRC.

"Will the entire Cabinet be sent to detention centres?" he asked, while saying that he will not "betray the country" by declaring himself "Pakistani Hindus" to obtain citizenship.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah assured Parliament Thursday that no participant in the process will be marked ‘doubtful’ in case he or she is unable to provide the information sought.

Referring to the controversial Citizenship Amended Act (CAA), Kejriwal said, "I don’t understand if this law is against the country’s Hindus or in the favour of Pakistani Hindus." The CAA grants citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered India before December 2014.

"61 out of 70 members don’t have birth proof," he continued before asking "how many of you are ready to declare yourselves as Pakistanis."

"We will not betray the country no matter what. We will spend the rest of our lives in detention centres, but will not declare ourselves as Pakistanis to obtain citizenship," CM Kejriwal asserted.

The Chief Minister also challenged the Union ministers to show whether they had birth certificates issued by the government agencies.

Tabling the resolution in the Assembly, cabinet minister Gopal Rai said the NPR updation should be stalled in Delhi. “And if the Centre insists, the process should be carried out in accordance with the 2010 format,” he added.

During the Assembly polls campaign, Kejriwal had repeatedly questioned the need for the NRC and CAA, citing the economic downturn, while also terming amendments in the citizenship law as “divisive”. The AAP had also voted against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in both Houses of Parliament.

In Delhi, the NPR updation exercise is supposed to begin on April 1 in the NDMC areas with the house-listing phase of Census 2021.

According to Citizenship Rules, verification of NPR data will begin only when the process for NRC starts. The NPR process will collect data of all “usual residents” of the country in a house-to-house census and then, during the process of NRC, verification of these details would be done and doubtful citizens would be marked. Notably, under Citizenship Rules, 2003, NPR is part of the NRC process.

While Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Bihar (where BJP rules with JD-U) and Andhra Pradesh have all passed resolutions against NPR, states such as Odisha, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu have reservations on the questions relating to details of parents in the NPR form.