Don’t have birth certificate, says KCR while opposing CAA, NPR
HYDERABAD:Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao asked the central government on Saturday to introduce a national identity card instead of implementing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). The chief minister further revealed he, too, has no birth certificate.
“Honestly speaking, I don’t have my birth certificate. If I am asked who I am in this country, what should I say? How do I prove? I was born in my native village, in our own house. There were no hospitals then; so I don’t have birth certificate,” KCR told the state assembly during a discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.
He said that earlier, village or family elders got birth star (zodiac) documents from the priests, which were treated as birth certificates. “There is no official stamp on it. Even today, I have my birth star document. Except that document, we don’t have any other document. Should I die, if I am asked to bring my father’s birth certificate, when I myself don’t have one?” he asked.
“How will Dalits, STs [Scheduled Tribes] and poor people have their birth certificates? If they ask for all these details today, where do we get them from? Why this huge turmoil in this country? What we suggest is to introduce a national identity card or something else instead,” he said.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi president said that such decisions also dishonored the fundamental fabric of the country. He said a resolution opposing the CAA will soon be introduced in the state Assembly.
The CM’s statement drew criticism from the BJP. “Being in a constitutional position, the way he tried to mislead people with his statements that NPR requires birth certificates is highly objectionable,” BJP spokesperson K Krishnasagar Rao said.