On Monday, the Telangana State Assembly passed a resolution opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The resolution was moved by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and was almost adopted unanimously except for BJP’s T Raja Singh protesting against it, reported The Economic Times.

The resolution urged the Centre to “remove all references to any religion or to any foreign country” in the CAA and expressed “concern over the proposed implementation of the National Popuation Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) which may result in the exclusion of a large number of people.” It also said that “there are valid concerns as to the legality and constitutionality of NPR and NRC.”

Objecting to the trend of calling anti-CAA-NPR-NRC protestors ‘Pakistani agents’ or ‘traitors’, he said, “Can you call the Telangana assembly a traitor for passing the resolution?”

Livemint also reported that the CM said the Act and two processes (NPR and NRC) were being used to “tinker with the inclusive and non-religious nature of citizenship.”

While addressing the Assembly as the resolution was being passed, he said that the implementation of the CAA-NPR-NRC will violate the principles of equality, non-discrimination and secularism, further adding that a “concerted attempt would also endanger the lives of vulnerable groups who did not possess documentary proof of citizenship.”

He also said, “Telangana plays an active role in nation building. We contribute a lot in taxes to the Centre. We have a responsibility to the nation as it is a question of our country’s future. We have a very strong reason to oppose the CAA,” The News Minute reported.

Saying that women, marginalized and underprivileged would be the most affected by it, he told, “The unfortunate thing with the CAA is that it is isolating Muslims. Our constitution doesn’t permit that and it is not with its framework. That is why we are opposing. We urge upon the Centre to review the decision. We are ready to support them as far as the nation is concerned.”

Condemning the ‘shoot the traitors’ slogan that was widely used by members of the ruling central government KCR, as he is popularly known, said, “Instead of focusing on farmers issues, unemployment and access to water, if they raise such issues, where will the country go? It is not a Hindu problem or a Muslim problem. It is the country’s problem.”

Telangana has now joined West Bengal, Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and Bihar which too have passed a resolution against the same.

Related:

Delhi Assembly passes resolution against NPR

Bihar resolves not to implement NRC

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They’re like a silent-time bomb. In 2016, the bad loans – or gross non-performing assets – of state-owned banks surged by an incredible 56% to Rs 614,872 crore.

Indian Overseas Banks, the worst hit, has a gross NPA ratio (the ratio of bad loans to total loans) of 22%. The figure for UCO bank is 17%.

Who has taken these bad loans? The corporate houses with the largest bad loans are Reliance, Vedanta, Essar, Adani and Jaypee. These NPAs represent a massive transfer of wealth from the Indian taxpayer to India’s business empires. Many large corporate houses are being supported by India’s poorest citizens who, in good faith, pay taxes on everything from biscuits to their hard-earned income.

The effect on India’s economy is disastrous. Many of India’s largest capitalists, surviving on family wealth and government doles, are not entrepreneurs anymore. They have stopped adding value to the system and now exist simply as rent seekers.

Given the strong ties between large capitalists and political parties, there is little action against loan defaulters. In March, for example, Vijay Mallya, who was a member of Parliament at the time, was allowed to fly out of the country by the Modi government in spite of the fact that he owed public sector banks Rs 9,000 crores. Mallya is simply the tip of the iceberg. The largest defaulters sit comfortably without any fear of action from the authorities.

Apart from promoting rent seeking, the extremely stressed nature of India’s banks mean that they will be very cautious about granting new loans in the near future. Given the depressed nature of the economy due to demonetisation, this is bad news.

This article was first published on Scroll.in

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