Among the tense atmosphere with regards to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), a notification issued by the Telangana State government on Wednesday for collecting information through house-listing and housing Census for the Census 2021 has renewed apprehensions in the people, reported the Deccan Chronicle.
The notification issued by the Telangana government has said that the operations for the same will commence on April 1, 2020. While officials say that CM K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR as he is fondly known, has asked them to put the work of NPR on hold until further instructions from the Chief Minister’s Office, but many people have otherwise opined that the CM was using the Census as a backdoor method to implement the NPR, thereby using it to implement the NRC.
The list issued by the Telangana government will have enumerators collect details from citizens on 31 items – details of the census house, total number of persons in the household, name and sex of the head of the household and whether the head of the household belongs to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or Other.
The enumerators will also ask for information regarding whether the household has access to the internet, laptop / computer, mobile phone and smart phone and the mobile number, which it has specified will be for ‘census related communications only’.
The NPR has been said to be the first step to the NRC and post attacks on government officials in Kota and West Bengal who were collecting information not related to the Census, the announcement of the exercise in Telangana has risen people’s fears.
In the current situation, with protests against the CAA-NPR-NRC mounting in the country, the enumerators also face fears of resistance from the public.
In the past, KCR has opposed the CAA and also raised doubts about the NPR and NRC, but hasn’t taken any official stand on it yet. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had voted against the bill in the Parliament. Telangana officials say that it might adopt a resolution against the CAA-NPR-NRC and that the CM is likely to make an official statement on the same. Last month, Telangana state home minister Mahmood Ali had said, “I assure you that there won’t be any NRC, there’s not even a second thought on it. We will live peacefully. There won’t be any trouble.”
With regards to the NPR-NRC, TRS working president, KCR’s son, KT Rama Rao earlier in December had said that the party would take a decision on the NPR-NRC only when an official communication from the Centre came their way. He said that if they found that the Centre’s intentions were questionable, they would take a call on the same in the Cabinet.
However, Congress MP A Revanth Reddy accused the government of being sly and said, “It is an open secret that Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekar Rao have a tacit understanding. Now it stands exposed after the notification of the TRS government, which will pave way for implementation of NPR and NRC in Telangana in future.”
Though the TRS trumped the BJP in the urban local body elections, KCR is said to be Modi’s ‘invisible friend’ after having backed his decisions like the Triple Talaq Bill and the abrogation of Article 370. It is said that now, by opposing the CAA-NPR-NRC, the TRS is trying to gain ground on the state and national levels, reported The Wire. This came to light when KCR said that more than 20 lakh Muslims from Telangana have been living in Gulf countries, doing menial jobs and that the BJP’s divisive politics would harm their interests.
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