CAA,NRC-NPR: Ranga Billa, Kung Fu Kutta: Arundhati Roy
NEW DELHI : Amid the ongoing protests across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, controversial author and social activist Arundhati Roy has urged the people to give fake names to the officials collecting data for the National Population Register (NPR).
Writer and activist Arundhati Roy on Wednesday claimed that the National Population Register (NPR) will serve as a database for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and asked people to oppose it by being lying.
In an open call to lie on NPR, She made a public appeal to Indians to lie about the census to authorities. The writer urged people to not be truthful while addressing a protest gathering at Delhi University, against the amended Citizenship Act, NRC and now the NPR.
“Now what is NPR? NPR has happened before. In NPR, they will come to your house, they won’t ask you anything, they ask you for your name and phone number. It is a database for NRC. But we have to fight them for the next 4 years.
She hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of “lying” on the NRC issue during a rally at Ramlila ground on Sunday. Moreover, Arundhati Roy claimed that NPR will harm not only the Muslim community but also tribals, Dalits and Adivasis.
Arundhati Roy said, “I went to small villages of Assam, there they have been talking about NRC since 1971. In Assam, people love their documents more than their children and cattle. There is nothing in the villages, but everyone has documents. In the case of floods, they know how to save their documents. Despite all the preparations 19 lakh people are out of NRC, a lot of them are not Muslims, because Muslims collected their documents out of fear.”
“They don’t have money to eat, but they will have to hire lawyers. This is against Muslims, but it is also against the poor, Adivasis, Dalits and tribal people. This is a plan to get everyone in trouble. There are detention camps being built, one should think about which private company would this go to. Our economy is dead, with demonetization. They are even lying there. Now they want to finish the Constitution,” the activist added.
Roy, who was addressing a gathering of anti-CAA protesters at the Delhi University on Wednesday, said, ”When the NPR authorities will come to your place for your details, fudge your name. We will decide on five names, such as Ranga Billa, Kung Fu kutta…give your address as 7, Race Course Road.” ”We are not born to take lathis and bullets. We need to act wisely,” she told the gathering.
Attacking the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre, Roy said the NPR will serve as a database for the NRC and asked people to oppose it by giving wrong names and addresses. She also claimed that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was targeted at the Muslims.
It may be recalled that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured people not to worry about their citizenship and also cautioned them not to believe in rumours being spread by anti-social elements about the CAA and the NRC to create unrest in the country.
PM Modi also directed his cabinet colleagues to counter the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) propaganda being unleashed by the opposition parties across the country. The instructions came at an informal chat with the cabinet ministers on Tuesday. Sources stated that the PM was peeved at the attacks by the opposition parties and wanted his senior colleagues to counter these with facts.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Tuesday said that there was no link between the National Population Register (NPR) exercise and the National Register of Citizen (NRC). Shah said that no detention centre has been created since the Modi government came to power. Speaking to ANI, Shah said that detention centre has been there for years and is for illegal immigrants.
“There is no connection between the detention centre and NRC or CAA. The centre has been there for years and is for illegal immigrants. Misinformation is being spread on this,” he said.
Responding to a query, he said the government has given time of six months to people who have been excluded from Assam`s NRC to approach the Foreigners Tribunal.
Because of the massive protests against the CAA and the NRC, the Union Cabinet has reportedly decided to shelve the controversial Law and resurrected the National Population Register, a relic of the Congress-led UPA regime.
The population register seeks to create a comprehensive identity database of every “usual resident” of the country. It defines “usual resident” as a person who has resided in a place for six months or more and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
(With Agency Inputs ).
