‘NPR no different than NRC’
LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).
He said: “The NPR is no different than NRC. The things that they will not be able to do with NRC, they will do through NPR.”
Akhilesh was addressing a gathering of party leaders and workers at the party headquarters during an event organised by Nishadh Sangh, Uttar Pradesh.
Taking a jibe at chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his government over the statements and action by the administration and the police in connection with attachment of the property of those protestors who allegedly resorted to violence, Akhilesh said: “When Samajwadi Party returns to power in 2022, it will realise damages for the 2007 riots in Gorakhpur.” Akhilesh Yadav said that it was because of the chief minister’s language that so many people lost their lives during the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the state. He also said the police damaged vehicles and looted houses during a crackdown on protestors.
“The police are not giving the families the post-mortem reports of their kin who died in the CAA protests nor are opposition leaders allowed to meet the bereaved family members,” he said.
Akhilesh said the right to dissent was inbuilt in a democratic system of government. The Samajwadi Party would stand by those who suffered injustice, he said.
Yadav reiterated that his party will not ally with any political party for the 2022 UP assembly polls. “Our alliance will be with the people,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of being ‘scared of Hindu-Mulsim unity’, he said, the CAA, NRC, NPR were all against the Constitution.
“The government enacted these laws to harass people and
terrorise Muslims. UP government got the most number of human rights violations notices,” he said.
Demanding aid for families who lost their loved ones in police firing, he said, “The police must also compensate for the loss of property.”