Delhi Polls: Cong Won’t Implement CAA, NPR, NRC In Present Forms If Voted To Power, Says Chopra

A resolution against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) was adopted in a meeting of Delhi Congress's manifesto committee for the Assembly polls.

(Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra on Sunday said the party, if elected to power in Delhi, would not implement CAA, NPR and NRC in their present forms and that the promise would be included in its manifesto for the upcoming Assembly election. A resolution against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) was adopted in a meeting of Delhi Congress's manifesto committee for the Assembly polls. "One of major promises of our manifesto will be non-implementation of CAA, NPR and NRC in their current forms," senior party leader and manifesto committee head Ajay Maken said in a joint press conference. Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal should call a special session of the Assembly to clear his party's stand on CAA and "attack" on Jamia Millia Islamia students by the police during a protest against the law, Chopra said. "If the Congress party is elected to power in Delhi, it will not implement NPR, NRC and CAA in their present forms," he said The BJP government at the Centre has let loose controversial issues to divert people's attention from pressing problems such as economic distress, price rise and unemployment, alleged Chopra. The BJP has accused the Congress of instigating violence in the country over CAA and asserted that the law was not going to snatch citizenship from any person in the country. Maken alleged there was "vast difference" in the NPR of 2010 and the NPR of 2020 as the Modi government has added six new clauses to the earlier version. "Kejriwal is maintaining an eloquent silence on CAA, NPR and NRC, and has been acting shy in summoning a special session of the Assembly, though in the past such sessions were called on trivial issues," Maken said. The BJP government has added six new questions to the NPR which has nothing to do with the NPR of 2010, Maken said. Details collected from the fresh questions included in the National Population Register are "linked" to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and are part of a "conspiracy" by the BJP government to push citizens' list in the "garb of NPR", he alleged. The NPR requires people to declare the "date and place of birth of both parents" for the first time. In the last NPR, data was collected on 15 criteria. This time data on 21 points will be collected, Maken said. It will pose problem for people whose parents were not born in India, he added.