Can’t run country without involving all sections: Rahul

RAIPUR: Hitting out at the Centre over the “deteriorating” economy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that the country cannot be run without involving every section of the society.

In a veiled attack on the government over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), he also said that nothing can be gained by making people fight among themselves. Gandhi was speaking at the inaugural f unction of t he t hree- day ‘National Tribal Dance Festival, 2019’ held at the Science College ground here.

“You know the condition of the country. What is happening in other states...,” he said in an apparent reference to the CAA and NRC. “You all know the problem of farmers’ suicide, deteriorating condition of the economy, unemployment,” he added.

“But I would like to say that without taking people from every religion, every caste, tribals, Dalits and backwards together, the economy of the country cannot be run,” Gandhi said. “Unless you take people along and unite the country, you cannot do anything to tackle the problem of unemployment and economy. Nothing can be gained by breaking things. The country cannot benefit by making people fight among themselves,” he added.

“If you (Centre) give the entire money to just 10-15 people of the country, implement demonetisation and unscrupulous GST, then neither can employment be generated nor can the economy be strengthened,” he said. UN Resident Coordinator in India, Renata Lok-dessallien, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, state cabinet ministers were among those present.

The NPR is a register of “usual residents” of the country, including non-residents, prepared at the local (village level), sub District (tehsil/taluk level), district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. The aim of NPR is to better target the benefits and services under the government schemes or programmes, improve planning, and prevent identity fraud.

The 2020 NPR to start from April 1, 2020, will be update of the 2010 NPR, which already has data of 1.17 billion people with biometric linkage of 250 million people. Some additional information will be sought from all residents, including the name and place of birth of the father, mother and spouse of every resident. NPR 2020 will have information on whether a resident was born in India or not. Lying in the declaration has been listed as a crime.

Both the NPRS are primarily aimed at creating a population register, including non-citizens. The enumeration is being done with the Census, when officials visit every household in the country, for a house-listing exercise. Both NPRS are aimed at creating a demographic and biometric database of all residents, with basic information such as name, address, place of birth, nationality, and marital status. At the enumeration stage, both are self-declaring mechanisms in which no documents are required. NPR is not applicable in Assam, as the Supreme Court had already mandated NRC there.

The 2010 exercise was the first attempt to build a national database of all residents of India, including foreigners. In this, the data of residents was collected on paper and then digitised with 10 finger prints and iris (eye scan) obtained from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), collected for generating Aadhaar numbers. Then, camps were held to show the list of usual residents in a village or a locality in urban areas, where people could make corrections in name, date of birth, or place of birth. After the camps, the local registrars were supposed to submit objections to the names of others on the local population register. These objections were to be disposed of by the revenue officials from village to the district level, who were also authorised to make “appropriate” remarks in the register. This filing of objections happened only in a few places in India. After the exercise, residency identity cards carrying Aadhaar numbers were also to be issued.

In a reply to Lok Sabha in May 2010, the UPA government had said that “once NPR is prepared, the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) could be derived from the NPR as a subset after ascertaining the citizenship of each individual as and when required and wherever required.” The NPR 2010 camps were considered as a verification exercise before starting the NRC process.

The 2010 exercise mentioned that NPR would have biometrics collected by UIDAI; the government has made no such claim for 2020 NPR. Key information about the births of both the people being enumerated and their parents is being sought in 2020 NPR, necessary for determining one’s citizenship under Citizenship Act, 1955. The 1955 law says all those born before 1987, those born between 1987 and 2004 where at least one parent is an Indian citizen, and those born after 2004, where at least one parent is an Indian citizen and other is not an illegal migrant, would qualify to be Indian citizens. The amended citizenship act, or CAA, also offers faster citizenship to “persecuted minorities” from three Muslim-majority countries who came to India by December 31,

2014. In NPR 2020, information on those not born in India is being sought. A crucial difference between the two is Aadhaar. Union I&B minister Prakash Javadekar has said that no Aadhaar will be needed for NPR 2020. In 2010, Aadhaar or any document was not needed during enumeration. It was only at subsequent NPR camps for verification of demographic data that Aadhaar was sought or enrolment for Aadhaar was done for de-duplication of NPR data. The government has so far being silent on such NPR camps. There is also no mention whether residency identity cards will be issued once NPR 2020 is completed, as was promised in 2010.

Home minister Amit Shah and other central leaders have clearly said that NPR and NRC are not linked. Previously, on at least five different occasions, the government told Parliament that NRC is the stepping stone for the NPR. In August 2019, the government notified NPR 2020, under the rules for Registration of Citizens and issuance of National Identity Cards, Rules 2003, which prescribes detailed process for creation of NRC. The government has not notified an all-india NRC so far. However, if there is to be a link later, the additional nationality and country-of-birth data asked for in the 2020 NPR could serve as the basis for an all-india NRC.