General Secretary of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ Student Union (TISS-SU) and Senior Research Fellow at TISS, Fahad Ahmad at a rally in Kishanganj, Bihar protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) demanded that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar immediately release a notification to stop the process of NPR from being implemented in the state.
Today Attended a Rally In Kishanganj (Bihar) which was organized by Student Fraternity
We demanded ‘Paltu Ram’ of Bihar should Stop doing his “Alti-Palti” and immediately release a notification to stop the process of NPR……#IndiaDoesSupportCAA @Shehla_Rashid @kanhaiyakumar pic.twitter.com/696jsmnqM5
— Fahad Ahmad (@FahadTISS) January 2, 2020
Ahmad requested the Bihar CM to remember his days of student activism and “show some empathy towards the current issue.”
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has been branded as a ‘paltu ram’ (turncoat) by many. He had supported the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in Parliament after opposing the NRC publicly and assuring that it won’t be implemented in the state. He has been under attack from the Opposition and the people of Bihar since.
The CM’s populairity has dwindled ever since and the people of Bihar are now apprehensive about his assurances citing that it was Kumar who had called for a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) free India, but supported the BJP with regards to the CAB.
Even Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav had ‘challenged’ the Bihar CM to ‘order suspension’ of the ongoing NPR work. Asking the CM to walk the talk, he had tweeted –
Assuming turncoat, rudderless, fickle Nitish Kumar has an ounce of intent to not implement NRC in Bihar, he must order suspension of preparation of NRP (National Population Register) with immediate effect until this unconstitutional law of #CAA is repealed! Walk the talk Mr. CM!
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) December 31, 2019
States like Rajasthan, Kerala and West Bengal have publicly announced that they have put on hold the NPR work in their states, much to the exasperation of the BJP-led government at the Centre. Even the Congress-ruled states are set to reject the NPR in its existing format. The NPR is seen as a pre-cursor to the proposed all-India NRC and for the first time, the place of birth has been introduced in the NPR making it to be a yardstick to gather information for the NRC.
Mass protests have erupted since the CAB became an Act and since then the Modi government has been trying to allay the anger of the people who are seeing the unholy trinity of the CAA-NPR-NRC as being religiously discriminative and putting the future of the marginalized communities at stake.
Related: